Social Anxiety Disorder – More Than Just Shyness

Some people think that Social Anxiety Disorder is just a form of extreme shyness, but it goes much further than that. People who suffer from Social Anxiety Disorder can have their entire lives disrupted and simple things, like going to a party or to the movies, may be impossible for them because of the fear and anxiety a simple outing can cause.

Social Anxiety Disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis which occurs when a person is found to suffer from excessive anxiety in social situations, which causes the person distressed and can render them unable to function in parts of their daily lives. Even though they may recognize that their feelings and actions are unreasonable, they may not be able to do anything to stop it.

Social Anxiety Disorder can manifest in two different ways; either specialized, in which the anxiety is limited to specific social situations, like having to speak in front of large groups of going to a party where you don’t know anyone, or generalized, which involves a persistent, intense, and chronic fear of all situations that involve social interactions.

With Generalized Social Anxiety Disorder, the anxiety stems from fear of being judged by others and also potentially being embarrassed or humiliated in some way by the patient’s own actions. They basically don’t trust themselves to interact with other people; they feel that either they will do something to embarrass themselves, or people will judge them too harshly and be critical of them.

In addition to the fear and severe anxiety, the physical symptoms of Social Anxiety Disorder can include excessive blushing, sweating, trembling, heart palpitations, nausea, and stammering. Social Anxiety Disorder can also bring on panic attacks, if the person is upset enough. Severity and duration of the symptoms varies from person to person.

Some people compensate for the anxiety they feel in social situations by self-medicating with alcohol or drugs, sometimes to an excessive or incapacitating point. This can lead to problems with substance abuse, on top of the anxiety problems; some sufferers feel as though they can’t function in social situations without alcohol or drugs serving as a boost to their confidence.

Social anxiety disorder is also one of the biggest causes of Panic Attacks in adults and really needs to be addressed if you are looking to stop panic attacks