Social Anxiety Disorder, or Social Phobia, also known as SAD, is characterised by intense anxiety the judgment of others or behaviour that may cause ridicule or embarrassment. This unreasonable anxiety can lead to avoidance behaviour. Physical symptoms are typically heart palpitations, blushing, faintness and profuse sweating.

Specific phobias cause people to suffer from terror of a particular object or situation such as dogs, spiders or heights. The intensity of the fear is commonly inappropriate to the perceived threat, and is recognised as irrational by the sufferer. This intense dread can often lead to avoidance of everyday situations. Anxiety disorders are readily treated by medication and/or psychosocial therapies.

Psycho social therapies for anxiety disorders include cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), anxiety management, exposure therapy, relaxation therapies and psychotherapy. Effective drugs include selective serotonin re uptake inhibitors (SSRIs), benzodiazepines, beta blockers, tri cyclic antidepressants and monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs).
Combination therapies are also effective.

Buspirone (Buspar) is usually prescribed in a daily dosage of 20-60 mg. It is effective and safe for the treatment of GAD, but usually takes around three or four weeks to take effect. Buspirone is better than benzodiazepines for treating apprehension, worry and depression. It is a very useful treatment for elderly patients who are more sensitive to benzodiazepine, and can be combined with benzodiazepines for excellent results.
Buspirone is not addictive, has minimal side effects, and does not interact with alcohol. The side effects are dizziness, headaches, and nausea.

Benzodiazepines include Xanax (alprazolam), Klonopin (clonazepam), Ativan (Iorazepam) and Valium (diazepam). These drugs act rapidly and effectively to relieve panic attacks and general anxiety, but they can be addictive, cause tiredness and impair memory. When sensibly employed, these medications are helpful for a short time, but they often lose their effectiveness over the long term.

Benzodiazepines relieve autonomic and somatic symptoms better than the psychic symptoms, but they do not prevent depression and may even make it worse. Anxiety is often found with several other psychiatric illnesses, including depression, and therefore the use of Benzodiazepines is often used in combination with other drugs.

Specific Phobia is the unreasonable fear of an object or a situation, which can cause a Panic Attack. Sufferers of phobias know that their fear is abnormal, but cannot control it. The object or situation which causes the phobia is mostly avoided or anticipated with dread.

Such phobias interfere with the sufferers life in many ways, in particular when it prevents the advancement of their career because they have a fear of flying, or it can affects them socially if they have agoraphobia, which can often lead to a reclusive lifestyle. The degree of the phobia varies dependant on the proximity of the feared object or the sufferer’s ability to escape the dreaded situation. A certain amount of fear of dangerous situations is entirely normal, however, and is not considered a phobia.

Phobias sometimes manifest in childhood, often instigated by a traumatic event, such as being bitten by a dog, which may lead to an irrational fear of dogs. Such phobias sometimes disappear as the sufferer matures. The fear of certain kinds of animals is the most common, and can be associated with Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia.