re: Social Anxiety

For extreme cases, some kind of exposure-response prevention therapy might be useful. I had (and sometimes have) high levels of anxiety around certain situations because I have OCD. My OCD is not really about flipping switches on and off or making sure everything is nice and neat -- it's more ruminating on unpleasant thoughts. The way I was treated was through ERP, which is based around the idea that, when exposed to the uncomfortable situation, we begin to experience and panic and seek to escape it. The response prevention part is the recognition that our feelings will sort themselves out and that escape is ultimately a fruitless endeavor.

It's a built up process, though. They wouldn't just throw someone into an extremely uncomfortable social situation. You start small and work your way up. It really helped me with a lot of my anxieties.