| Parenting the child of any age with social anxiety and related problems
can be a daunting task. As one father said to me "when
you have a child they don't come with a training manual.
It is absolutely essential for parents to understand that
while there are many different manifestations of social anxiety
there are basically two types of people who have the problem.
One is the individual who is capable of initiative. The other
is not. Initiative does not mean ability. It means to “start
up”. No children are capable of initiative. 99% of teenagers
are not. Many adults are overly dependent on their caregivers
and, therefore are not capable of initiative.
The biggest mistake that is made regarding social anxiety
is to believe that the child who is “shy” or socially
avoidant will simply grow out of the problem. This is not
the case. The problem gets worse with time. The reality is
that healing occurs when the person learns their way out of
the problem. When dependants of any age do not have initiative,
the parents have two choices. One is to learn how to empower
the child to healing. The other is to do nothing, which is
is “enabling” the problem.
As a parent, you have a lot of power to help your child heal:
whether your child is 6, 16, or, 26. The earlier that parents
learn a corrective parenting strategy for the socially anxious
child, the easier therapeutic objectives can be reached;
the anxiety has less of a chance to work its way into the
personality and create avoidant and dependent characteristics!
Understand that time is your most valuable asset. Taking
action now can save you from a lifetime of distress and despair.
Your Options- Free Introductory CD
- The book, "Beyond Shyness: How to Conquer Social Anxieties" (Simon & Schuster)
- Comprehensive self-therapy audio CD program for social and performance anxiety
- Public Speaking Anxiety: Self Therapy Audio CD Program
- Therapy in Great Neck, New York
- Telephone therapy
- Selective Mutism Seminar on Audio CD
- "Parenting The Selectively Mute Child": Self-therapy Audio CD Program
- "Social Therapy and the Learning Disabled: A seminar on Audio CD
- Free social-ability questionnaire
- Free "Parent Addiction" quiz
- Subscribe to the Tip of the Month Club
There are many free self diagnostic options at www.social-anxiety.com
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