Herbs and other natural remedies are becoming an increasingly popular alternative to prescription drugs for the treatment of social anxiety. While chemical based anti-anxiety medications do work well, they can often be habit-forming or cause side effects, whereas herbal treatments for social anxiety are considered safer and typically do not lead to dependence or addiction. But because the FDA does not thoroughly evaluate all natural treatments, most of the herbal treatments for social anxiety on the market simply are not effective.

But certain herbs do exhibit potent anti-anxiety effects, and a handful of herbal treatments for social anxiety have been proven to effectively relieve anxiety when manufactured properly and administered in the proper dosages. The herbal treatments for social anxiety most likely to successfully relieve your anxiety are those containing herbs backed by solid clinical research (i.e. shown to effectively reduce social anxiety in multiple well-designed studies). And it's absolutely critical to take an herbal anxiety treatment that provides herbal extracts in the proven doses and potencies.

1. (Valeriana officinalis) or simply Valerian is one herb shown to relieve anxiety in clinical trials. Standard Valerian extracts with a minimum of 0.8% valerenic acid, the active constituent, work best. Valerian extract works rapidly, often in less than an hour, when taken in doses of a few hundred milligrams, and can be taken up to three or four times per day.

2. Green Tea Extract L-theanine (an amino acid) is another herbal anxiety treatment with a significant anti-anxiety effect. Many people report that L-theanine works as well as prescription anti-anxiety medications, but L-theanine is not addictive or habit-forming. Quite a few herbal treatments for anxiety claim to contain "L-theanine" but actually contain a low-quality Green Tea extract with only a small amount of L-theanine, so make sure that you take an herbal anxiety treatment with 98% or 99% pure L-theanine (such as SunTheanine