Helen meets the DSM 5 criteria to be diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder because according to the criteria and the symptoms she presents with, her presentation of symptoms corresponds with those of this anxiety disorder umbrella. According to the DSM 5, Helen’s symptoms can be seen from the offset as her fear of social situations has “extended past 6 months with a presence of fear, anxiety, and symptoms linked with avoidance’ (Glue, 2012). These symptoms have been present and were significant at age 19, where she is not age 21, showing a two year occurrence of these symptoms. In particular, she avoided attending classes when she was asked to do a presentation or speech, dropping out of class and avoiding the situation all together. Helen …show more content…
While the exact precipitating factors are not known, there are many possible causes that are involved in this disorder. One of the possible causes comes down to family conflict. Family conflict, especially during childhood and adolescence, can create anxiety because children pick up anxiety related learned responses after being in tense social interactions. Helen’s parents had a divorce during her adolescent years, and her subsequent interactions with her father were minimal, so this could be a potential causal factor for …show more content…
When managing this anxiety disorder as a whole, psychological intervention is crucial for long term success. Psychological treatments such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can assist clients such as Helen to confront those negative and distorted thoughts they have about themselves and the world. This helps them to self-regulate and to help with managing the feared response regarding social interaction (Sainato, 2016). For Helen, I believe that exposure based cognitive behavioral therapy would be the most beneficial psychotherapeutic intervention for her. Not only will this address the negative and feared thoughts she has regarding social interaction, but it will also gradually expose her to the feared situations, giving her coping skills to help address different levels of anxiety. This approach deals with challenging one’s negative core beliefs, but also uses practical skills such as mindfulness, deep breathing and thought journaling, to practice applicable skills to improve her social interaction style (Davidson,