I know that with DS 9, the whole plan revolves around slowly introducing him to situations, upping his stress threshold and working with him on how to calm down on the spot. I wish I had had that training!:)

I think part of it is that as adults we slowly move more into our comfort zones. There is no one proding and poking us (much) into situations we are uncomfortable with, so our resistance goes down. Maybe I have to go to a dance club and stand there for 10 minutes, then the following week 15...treat it as a way to up resistance. ^_^ That would be funny. Everyone else having fun and me standing, gritting my teeth and looking at my watch.