Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), also called the coding technique, has been a proven treatment for social anxiety disorder. Neuro-Linguistic Programming is a psychological therapy that consists of finding your personal power and getting to the root of your problems, using positive affirmations and releasing fears and blocks. NLP is basically a process of reprogramming your brain.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming was developed in the early 1970s at the University of California at Santa Cruz. The study began as an attempt to find out exactly what makes people effective and successful, and why different people with the same level of education and identical backgrounds experience different levels of success. During the study, it was discovered that a person’s thought patterns play a huge role in determining the amount of success that person will experience, and that the brain can learn healthy patterns and behaviors that produce positive physical and emotional results. . Neuro-linguistic programming was born.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming is about looking at experiences from a different angle, either voluntarily or by force. This helps reprogram thought patterns. For example, a woman starts having panic attacks every time she gets behind the wheel of a car and eventually stops driving. While she was visiting a foreign country with her children, the only way to get around was by driving.

The woman was forced to drive, using a clutch and driving on the left side of the road, instead of the right. Once we learn to drive, it becomes automatic to us, like breathing. But this woman was forced to drive in ways that were completely new to her. As a result, she was cured of her panic attacks while she was driving, and when she returned home, she was able to drive again without having panic attacks. Her thoughts on driving were totally reprogrammed.

Social Anxiety Disorder can also be treated – and cured – with Neuro-Linguistic Programming. People are simply taught new ways of looking at social situations, and their thought patterns are changed in a way that takes away their fear of social situations. There is quite a bit of information online about the use of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. A great site is Advanced Neuro Dynamics at http://www.nlp.com.

Gary Miller is the author of “Prisoners of Our Thoughts: Breaking Free from the Clutches of Social Anxiety and Fear.” For more information about the book, click here to go to the website at http://www.social-anxiety-cure.com.