Exercise, Yoga can Help People Cope with Social Anxiety Disorder

Exercise, yoga can help people cope with social anxiety disorder, a new study suggests.

Researchers at the Queen's University have found that relaxation activities change the way people see the world. Participating in yoga lessons could help people with social anxiety perceive the environment as less threatening.

Social phobia or social anxiety disorder is a strong feeling of being judged by others or getting into embarrassing situations. The fear can be so crippling that it could get in the way of work and personal relationships. About 15 million American adults suffer from this disorder and it usually begins in childhood or early teenage years.

For the study, researchers used point-light displays, which is a depiction of a human that has dots at major joint points. People who see these light displays feel that the simulation is  either facing towards them or away from them. According to the researchers, people who suffer from social anxiety disorder feel that the display is moving towards them.

"We wanted to examine whether people would perceive their environment as less threatening after engaging in physical exercise or after doing a relaxation technique that is similar to the breathing exercises in yoga (called progressive muscle relaxation)," said Adam Heenan, a Ph.D. candidate in the Clinical Psychology. "We found that people who either walked or jogged on a treadmill for 10 minutes perceived these ambiguous figures as facing towards them (the observer) less often than those who simply stood on the treadmill. The same was true when people performed progressive muscle relaxation."

The finding is important because it shows that exercise can help people shift focus from "threatening objects" in the environment. Researchers said that anxious people often concentrate only on anxiety-inducing objects.

"This is a big development because it helps to explain why exercising and relaxation techniques have been successful in treating and mood and anxiety disorders in the past," said Mr. Heenan, according to a news release.

The study is published in the journal PLOS One.