In America more than 13% of the population have a social anxiety disorder some of them are children, adults and youth. Not many people give attention to the severity of this disorder because there is not much information or awareness in the media. However, there are millions of adolescents suffering from this mental illness and desperately need help.

Some people have a social anxiety disorder since children due to genetics and some others get it because of some emotional problem or trauma that they experienced and affected their believes. For example an humiliation in front of many people can create a serious trauma that can create social anxiety in an adolescent.

Social anxiety disorders in youth can be very frustrating and even depressive for many teenagers, because that is the age when they are developing their personality, meeting new people, making friends and starting to date women.

The effects of social anxiety in adolescents can be very severe:

• They are lonely
• depressive
• they experience distress
• they avoid social activities
• It becomes a huge emotional challenge to meet a women
• Their performance at school is low E
• very social interaction becomes an emotional challenge

Another important consequences of social anxiety in youth is that up to one fifth of them engage in alcohol abuse or even drugs to reduce their anxiety in social activities. The result in this is an addiction that is hurting their health and will not solve their anxiety problem.

That is the reason why parents should be aware of the symptoms of social anxiety and help their kids or teens to overcome this disorder. Many parents when they see their adolescent irritating and lonely, they think that is just a common symptoms of youth, but it can be an anxiety problem and you should help him.

There are different ways to help a person overcome this anxiety disorder, you can find psychotherapy help or use medications. Medications like antidepressants will help reduce the effects of some symptoms for a short period of time, but psychotherapy can make a huge difference in helping your the adolescent change his thought patterns and physical reactions so he can learn to control his social anxiety.

The sooner you treat the problem the better, youth is very vulnerable to emotional and social problems, if the person does not look for help or treatment, he will get a depression, then will start taking alcohol and drugs, can experience panic attacks and in very severe cases suicide, so dont take this disorder lightly.