Reddit reviews What You Must Think of Me: A Firsthand Account of One Teenager's Experience with Social Anxiety Disorder (Adolescent Mental Health Initiative)

I've been treated for social anxiety. I had cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), just like teh_d0ct0r. What happens in this therapy is that you learn to expose yourself to social interactions (the behavioral part) and you learn to challenge the anxiety and negative ideas associated with that whenever they come up (the cognitive part). So for example, if you start becoming anxious when meeting someone because you think they are judging you negatively, you ask yourself how do you know that they are doing that? Are you a mind-reader?

Social anxiety is basically a vicious circle in which you keep automatically assuming that social interactions will turn out negatively for you, and hence you avoid those interactions or they become extremely awkward for you, and that only reinforces the pattern. CBT is designed to break that pattern.

At the start of my therapy I had to make a list of social situations I felt anxious about, and then rank them on a scale from 0 to 100 of how anxious I felt about doing those things. Then the therapist gave me homework every week that consisted of exposing me to these situations, starting at the bottom (least anxious) and gradually working my way up the ladder. Every week I had to spend about 30-60 minutes doing this, and then I'd discuss how things went with my therapist in our weekly appointment (later, only once in two weeks).

The therapy has worked for me, although it is not a quick magical fix. But at the very least I can now deal with anxiety a lot better whenever it comes up.

CBT is, as far as I know, the most effective method for dealing with social anxiety. Medication also has reasonable results, though the risk is that it doesn't have any longterm results (ie. when you take the medication away, the anxiety comes back). Sometimes CBT is used together with medication. There are also some alternative methods that have a smaller positive effect, like doing regular meditation or breathing exercises to calm down. Improving your social skills (something which definitely can be learned) also has a slightly positive effect.

If you want to learn about what social anxiety and treatment methods for it look like, I highly recommend this book which is a very readable insiders perspective.

If you're anxious about going to a doctor to talk about social anxiety, have someone you trust (eg. one of your parents) accompany you.

Hope that helps. If you have any questions, just ask!