Editorial Policy
Conquer Social Anxiety exists to provide clear, compassionate, and scientifically responsible education about social anxiety.
Our goal is to help people understand social anxiety more accurately: what it is, how it develops, what may keep it going, what treatment options exist, and what remains uncertain.
We aim to make psychological knowledge accessible without making it simplistic, exaggerated, or misleading.
What this policy explains
This editorial policy explains how CSA creates, reviews, updates, and corrects educational content.
Our Purpose
CSA is an educational platform dedicated to social anxiety.
The site is designed for adults with social anxiety, people who wonder whether they may have social anxiety, loved ones who want to understand it better, and professionals or researchers who want to see how CSA communicates psychological knowledge to the public.
Educational scope
CSA is not a psychotherapy practice, crisis service, diagnostic service, or substitute for individualized care from a qualified health professional.
Our educational aim is simple: to help people understand social anxiety well enough to make more informed decisions and engage more actively with meaningful change.
Editorial Values
CSA’s content is guided by five editorial values.
Scientific Honesty
We try to distinguish between what is well supported, what is plausible, what is debated, and what is still uncertain.
Clinical Carefulness
We avoid presenting general education as diagnosis, treatment, or individualized advice.
Compassion
Social anxiety is not weakness, vanity, laziness, or a character flaw. It is a painful and often impairing pattern of fear, protection, learning, and avoidance.
Accessibility
Psychological science should be understandable without requiring a university degree.
No Hype
We do not promise cures, quick fixes, guaranteed outcomes, or simple answers to complex psychological difficulties.
How We Create Content
CSA content is created through a process of psychological knowledge translation.
This means we draw from psychological research, clinical psychology training, diagnostic systems, treatment literature, and lived human experience, then translate that knowledge into language that is understandable for the public.
When creating or revising educational pages, we consider sources such as:
- clinical guidelines;
- systematic reviews and meta-analyses;
- peer-reviewed research articles;
- major diagnostic frameworks, where relevant;
- established psychological models of social anxiety;
- clinical and psychoeducational literature;
- CSA’s own research-related work, where appropriate.
Not every page requires the same type of evidence. A page explaining diagnosis requires different sourcing than a page explaining shame, avoidance, or everyday social fear. But the standard is the same: claims should be careful, proportionate, and grounded in the best available understanding.
Evidence and Uncertainty
CSA does not treat all claims as equally certain.
Some statements are strongly supported by research. For example, avoidance and safety behaviors are widely recognized as important maintenance processes in social anxiety. Some treatment approaches, especially disorder-specific cognitive behavioral therapy and exposure-based methods, have a stronger evidence base than others.
Other topics are more complex, newer, less studied, or more dependent on context. In those cases, CSA aims to say so clearly.
How CSA handles uncertainty
We try to avoid two common mistakes: overstating weak evidence and making useful ideas sound worthless simply because they are less studied. Evidence should guide the level of confidence, not become a tool for false certainty.
A separate Evidence Standards page explains in more detail how CSA describes different levels of evidence.
Treatment and Product Recommendations
CSA does not publish affiliate-style treatment recommendations inside educational content.
We do not recommend third-party products, supplements, CBD products, essential oils, apps, therapy platforms, or commercial tools because they generate revenue. This is especially important because people with social anxiety may be vulnerable to promises of quick relief.
CSA may offer its own educational resources, courses, or learning materials. When something is a CSA product, this should be clear. Commercial offers should never determine what the educational content says about social anxiety, treatment, diagnosis, medication, or recovery.
Editorial independence
Educational content and commercial content should remain clearly distinguishable.
Therapy, Diagnosis, and Medical Boundaries
CSA provides education, not individualized healthcare.
Reading CSA content cannot determine whether you have social anxiety disorder or another mental health condition. It cannot replace a diagnostic assessment, psychotherapy, medical consultation, medication advice, or crisis support.
Content about treatment is general psychoeducation. It may help you understand possible options, prepare questions, or make sense of common therapeutic approaches, but it is not a personal treatment recommendation.
When to seek professional support
If you are struggling, unsure what applies to you, considering medication changes, or experiencing significant impairment, please speak with a qualified health professional.
If you may be in immediate danger or at risk of harming yourself or someone else, contact local emergency services or a crisis support service in your country.
Use of AI and Editorial Tools
CSA may use digital tools, including AI-assisted tools, to support parts of the editorial process, such as outlining, drafting, editing, translation support, organization, or readability improvement.
These tools do not replace editorial responsibility.
Published CSA content should be reviewed, revised, and approved before publication. AI-assisted text should not be treated as a source of scientific authority.
Claims about social anxiety, diagnosis, treatment, research, or medication should be checked against appropriate sources and edited to fit CSA’s standards of accuracy, caution, and tone.
Review and Updating
CSA aims to keep important educational pages current.
Pages may be reviewed or updated when:
- new evidence becomes available;
- diagnostic or clinical guidelines change;
- a page becomes outdated;
- a claim needs more nuance;
- a reader, clinician, or researcher points out a possible issue;
- internal linking or site structure changes;
- CSA’s educational framework becomes more precise.
Not every small edit changes the page’s substance. Minor wording, formatting, or readability updates may happen without a full content review. Substantial changes should be reflected in the page’s content and, where appropriate, in the “last updated” date.
Corrections
CSA welcomes corrections.
If you notice a factual error, outdated statement, unclear claim, broken link, missing source, or wording that could be misleading, you can contact CSA and explain the issue.
Corrections are reviewed according to their importance. If a correction affects accuracy, clinical meaning, user safety, or scientific interpretation, the relevant page should be revised as soon as reasonably possible.
Conflicts of Interest
CSA aims to avoid editorial conflicts of interest.
The site does not use affiliate marketing as a basis for mental health recommendations. Educational content should not be shaped by commissions, referral payments, sponsorships, or product promotion.
If CSA receives funding, sells a course, publishes research, collaborates with institutions, or has another relevant relationship that could reasonably affect how content is perceived, that relationship should be disclosed where appropriate.
Authorship and Responsibility
CSA content is published under the responsibility of Conquer Social Anxiety.
The platform was founded by Martin Stork, who holds a psychology degree from Universidad EAFIT in Colombia and a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy for Adults from the University of Minho in Portugal. CSA’s research-related work is connected to academic collaborations and ongoing psychological research on social anxiety.
Credibility should not rely on authority alone
CSA should not rely on personal authority alone. The site’s credibility should come from careful reasoning, transparent standards, appropriate sourcing, and a willingness to revise content when needed.
Contact
Questions, corrections, and professional feedback can be sent through the contact page.
CSA especially welcomes feedback from readers with lived experience of social anxiety, clinicians, researchers, educators, and people who notice ways the site could communicate more clearly, carefully, or compassionately.
Continue Learning
These pages explain CSA’s standards, evidence approach, and educational scope in more detail.
Learn how CSA evaluates research findings, treatment claims, uncertainty, and levels of support.
Read more about CSA’s purpose, scope, and educational mission.
Explore the research themes and academic work that inform CSA’s educational direction.
Understand the limits of CSA’s educational content and when professional help may be needed.
CSA provides education, not emergency support or a substitute for professional diagnosis, treatment, or therapy. If you are in immediate danger or crisis, seek urgent local help. For more information, see Crisis Help and the Medical Disclaimer.