The United Nations has branded Friday 20 March the International Day of Happiness but while many feel happy, there are others who are not and suffer from loneliness and social anxiety disorders.
The pursuit of happiness is in fact a very serious business, with experts claiming that loneliness can be twice as deadly as obesity, the BBC’s Tim Muffett reported.
Loneliness can have a significant impact on mental health and it can contribute to mental health problems, such as anxiety and depression, says Mind, an organisation that offers advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem. .
Having a mental health problem can also make one feel lonely, Mind says. For example, a condition may make one find social contact difficult or find it hard to maintain friendships or feel isolated because of stigma and discrimination.
Certain lifestyles and the stresses of daily life can make some people socially isolated and vulnerable to loneliness.
But the National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH) is ideally placed to help people overcome their phobias and lead normal social lives. The NCH has 1800 fully trained and qualified therapists across the UK equipped to help people conquer such phobias.
Social anxiety disorder (social phobia), says the NHS, and is a persistent and overwhelming fear of social situations. It’s one of the most common anxiety disorders.
Social anxiety disorder is much more than ‘shyness’. It can be intense fear and anxiety over simple everyday activities, such as shopping or speaking on the phone.
Many people sometimes worry about certain social situations, but someone with social anxiety disorder will worry excessively about them before, during and afterwards.
They fear doing or saying something they think will be embarrassing or humiliating, such as blushing, sweating or appearing incompetent.
Social anxiety disorder has a disruptive or disabling impact on a person’s life. It can severely affect a person’s confidence and self-esteem, interfere with relationships and impair performance at work or school.
A phobia is an irrational fear, literally a fear without good reason, or a fear of something that may not happen, says the NCH and its therapists will help sufferers see that phobia in a different context starting from an objective perspective and then gradually building up exposure from a minimal to comfortable level.
Using hypnosis, this can be done rapidly as the unconscious is able to process information more effectively without the interference of the critical mind. This is a known as desensitisation.
Often phobias can be treated in just one session. There is, however, no guarantee as change depends on the individual’s willingness to embrace it. Most therapists will, therefore, give their clients a realistic expectation of how long treatment may last.
Each hypnotherapist may use a slightly different approach to treating phobias depending on whether the client knows when the phobia first started, how they view it and how receptive they are to change.
It can be that easy to beat loneliness and conquer your phobias. The NCH has a directory which lists all active therapists throughout the UK and can be reached by clicking here.
