What one of the issues of that Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy or REBT can help with is social anxiety. Social anxiety is pervasive among people with an AD or an Anxiety Disorder. It is characterized by extreme shyness, with anxious feelings and inability to interact with other people. An effective intervention method to this condition is shame-attacking through the Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy process.
What is Shame-Attacking?
Shame-attacking is an exercise which focuses on having a public spectacle that aims to draw disapproval from the witnesses. This display of shame need not have to be that big. People can start with small crowds and in places where there are fewer passers-by when doing this exercise.
The exercise may sound severe, and I do mean, why find a way to shame yourself, right? It is even a little weird for many but, the purpose of it is to overcome social anxiety or the phobia of talking or being with to people. One must look into the broader objective of this exercise. It is created and recommended not for trivial reasons, but to help people suffering from the disorder. They have to be able to overcome, surpass and completely get away from the said condition and of course, live the life to the fullest.
How Does It Work?
By nature, a human has this “sense” bound. The human mind has limitations in handling certain situations. Usually, these restrictions keep people from responding positively to the circumstance in its fullest effect. As Licensed clinical psychologist John Mayer, Ph.D. explains, “Negative thoughts are just a part of life, but they don’t have to consume you. Instead of trying to ignore those thoughts altogether, try countering them with positive statements.”
Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy believes in the idea that it is a person’s attitude and thoughts that has control on human responses. It is not the events or the situations that the person is currently experiencing. People listen to their opinions and feel their emotions accordingly. With that, they react in a snap and without thinking, rather than assess the situation and respond for that reason.
With shame-attacking exercise, a person will get to weigh and assess himself on which factor dominates him – his emotion or his thoughts. As for that, shame-attacking exercise videos are available on the internet. People have convenient and easy access to these videos, and they can even do the exercise themselves, at their own expense.
How To Exercise REBT Techniques Concerning Shame-Attacking Exercise
Bottom line, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy believes that changing the beliefs and attitude of the person will be a big help in overcoming mental health issues like social anxiety. Doing so and repeatedly instilling in REBT techniques, the person can overcome social anxiety and his other mental health problems. Lesser adverse outcomes will surface, and the person’s perception of shameful things will eventually change.
“People with social anxiety disorder experience anxiety when faced with social situations. They do not believe their anxiety is related to an illness or disease, yet have little control over their fear of social interactions.” –Charmaine J. Simmons, LPC
With REBT, you will learn to be less sensitive and even detach your thoughts and feelings on some things that may put you on a downward spiral. The learning process will focus on rewards and punishments. Practicing the shame-attacking exercise will help a person interpret undesirable consequences negatively to overcome their social anxiety. Does that make sense? If it doesn’t, then, you can ask an REBT expert for clarifications.
This exercise may sound scary and even unrealistic but once done over and over; the person will finally understand its essence. As stated before, this practice is for people with social anxiety. As explained by Robert Allison, MA, LPC, “When anxiety is at it’s worst and reaches the level of panic it can be debilitating and feel paralyzing. Your mind gets a little too suspicious. Suspicious of what might happen, what could happen, suspicious of other people.” Through this, it will help change their perspective on things which they consider nerve-wracking, and then eventually lead them to feel good about themselves. In time, they will gain their self-confidence which will help them face their most profound fear – interacting with others.