More than 20 million Americans of all ages have a problem of social anxiety, which is one of the most common psychological disorders. Also there are many more people that dont look for help and they suffer their problem quietly.

Causes

Social anxiety is developed usually in the childhood, the cause can be genetics if the parents had social anxiety the child is more likely to have it too.

It can be a brain chemical unbalance, when there is an unbalance of serotonin then it can be a cause of some disorders.

The environment in which the child is growing can affect his personality, if he is embarrass in front of other people then it can trigger social anxiety.

Children can also have Selective Mutism which is a severe form of social anxiety, They can socialize with family members but not with other people.

In teenagers negative experiences can be a cause for social anxiety, if they were embarrassed at school or where scrutinized because of their body image, can trigger the disorder.

Adolescents and Teenagers with social phobia

Its natural for adolescents to experience anxiety in some social situations when they are going to a new school, meeting new friends, dating, etc. some can be shy, but it becomes a problem when their have an extreme fear of being with people and the anxiety does not go away.

Teenagers have social anxiety when it interferes with their daily activities and they start to avoid social situation and important things because of their fear.

The result of social anxiety in teenagers is depression, they are seeing that their peers are having fun, going out, having girlfriends, partying and he or she is missing all that, this can cause serious depression.

Symptoms of Social Anxiety in Adolescents

Some of the symptoms that show up are:

• loneliness, the adolescent might prefer to stay in his room or avoid seeing any friend and stay long periods of time alone.
• They might have poor social skills and have few or no friends at all.
• They avoid school activities or they even refuse to go to school.
• When he or she needs to introduce himself on a new class he experience a very anxious and uncontrollable situation. The same can happen if he needs to give a presentation in front of the classroom.

Recovery

However there are now different treatments that help reduce, control or overcome social anxiety. If you detect some anxiety problems in the early years of your child is good to see a doctor or professional so he can guide you on what to do to help him in his early years, this way it will be much easier to overcome they problem before it gets worse.

People that dont treat their social phobia get worse and it makes it more difficult later on to get over it, medications become a part of their life and is very frustrating.

If you notice in your teenager some anti social behaviors and you think that he or she might have this disorder you can go with a psychotherapist so he can make a diagnosis and you can talk also with their teachers and ask them about your child behavior in the classroom and performance.

To this day the most recommended type of treatment is (CBT) Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which helps with:

changing negative beliefs develop social skill gradual exposure to social situations anxiety managements skills