Engaging smiles and Justin Nguyen seemed to go hand in hand to the students he met his freshman year at U. Kansas. Few would have guessed a serious psychological disorder hid beneath his shy, but friendly, exterior.

“I was excited to leave home to go to KU,” said Nguyen, a senior from Kansas City, Kan. “I was ready to leave my social anxiety disorder zone in KC and start a new life. I never expected it would catch up with me.”

What started as feelings of loneliness and withdrawal transformed into persistent social distress. A study released earlier this year showed that he was not alone and that successful treatment was available. The findings, published in the Journal for Specialists in Group Work, showed that college students were most susceptible to social anxiety, which often leads to depression, excessive drinking and substance abuse, but that symptoms significantly decreased after an eight-week group therapy intervention.

“When you leave home for the first extended period of time you have to adjust to a different environment and negotiate difficult interpersonal relationships,” said Tracy Wechselblatt, groups coordinator and clinical psychologist at Watkins Health Center. “Group therapy gives them a place to talk to peers who share their problems or concerns in a spontaneous, honest fashion.”

Wechselblatt said that most people had feelings of anxiety and nervousness that could be addressed in group therapy, even for those who had not been clinically diagnosed with the disorder.

“If you’re anxious about a class that you have to participate in, your immediate response is to skip the class, which only allows the anxiety to build over time,” said Sarah Kirk, director of KU Psychological Clinic. “If you’re forced to go, you’re very anxious immediately, but eventually habituation brings your heart rate, negative thoughts and feelings of anxiety down.”

For people dealing with feelings of anxiety, group therapy works much the same way. Kirk said group therapy is scary for people at first, but soon they understand those feelings are only momentary and will eventually decrease. For some people this will only take a few sessions, but it may take several sessions for others, said.