Social anxiety needs graded exposure
Commentary on pandemic-era school closures warns that avoiding social demands can worsen teen social anxiety over time, so gradual, supported re‑engagement is usually better than indefinite accommodation. Practical classroom moves suggested include partner talk, predictable discussion structures, and low-stakes participation options to rebuild students’ tolerance for social tasks. (psychologytoday.com)
A lot of teenagers looked calmer when schools shut down in 2020, but one reason was simple: lunch tables, class discussions, presentations, and crowded hallways disappeared overnight. A new April 9, 2026 commentary argues that this relief often came from escaping feared situations, not from the anxiety actually getting smaller. (psychologytoday.com) Social anxiety is fear tied to being watched, judged, or embarrassed by other people, and the National Institute of Mental Health says teens may avoid school, speaking, eye contact, or unfamiliar peers because of it. The problem is that avoidance can make the brain treat ordinary social moments like danger alarms that never get tested. (nimh.nih.gov) That is why treatment often uses exposure, which means practicing the feared situation in small, planned steps instead of waiting to feel ready first. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry lists cognitive behavioral therapy, including exposure-based work, among the most effective treatments for anxiety in children and adolescents. (aacap.org) School closures interrupted exactly that kind of practice. A JAMA Pediatrics review of the first wave of coronavirus closures found repeated reports of worse mental health and reduced well-being in children and adolescents during lockdown periods. (jamanetwork.com) Follow-up research suggests some of the damage was specifically social, not just general stress. A 2023 Scientific Reports study tracking 844 Portuguese adolescents before, during, and after closures found changes in social withdrawal and social anxiety across those years, with self-esteem acting as a buffer for some students. (nature.com) The commentary’s point is not that schools should force terrified students into sink-or-swim participation. It says the safer move is graded re-entry: a short partner talk before a full-group comment, a predictable turn-taking routine before open discussion, or a written response before speaking aloud. (psychologytoday.com) That approach works because predictability lowers the number of unknowns. When a student knows the question format, the partner, the time limit, and the order of speakers, the task stops feeling like walking onto a dark stage and starts feeling like rehearsing one scene. (psychologytoday.com) Low-stakes participation also counts as real practice. Saying one sentence to a classmate, reading a prepared line, or answering through a structured routine gives the student a successful repetition, and repeated repetitions are how exposure changes fear over time. (aacap.org) The trap is endless accommodation that removes every social demand for months or years. Child Mind Institute clinicians warn that when adults repeatedly help children avoid feared situations, the child gets short-term relief but loses chances to learn that the situation is manageable. (childmind.org) Schools are a hard place for socially anxious teens because the feared situations happen all day, but that also makes schools one of the few places where practice can happen daily. A 2025 Psychology Today review of school-based work notes that social anxiety often begins in early adolescence and that school settings are increasingly being used to reduce symptoms. (psychologytoday.com) The thread running through all of this is that confidence usually comes after participation, not before it. For a teenager who got used to years of distance, cameras off, and fewer social demands, the first useful target may be one predictable sentence in one safe classroom on one ordinary day. (psychologytoday.com)
