What You Need to Know About Social Anxiety Disorder

Are you one of those people who have tremendous self-confidence in private, but somehow manages to transform yourself into a stuttering mass of nerves in public? You don’t know why, but other people’s attention and scrutiny just scares you. You want others to like you, to see you as fit and worthy. You worry about your performance; you often find yourself wondering if you will measure up to the world’s standards.

If this is you, don’t worry; what you’re feeling is a normal emotion. It’s called social anxiety.

Social anxiety is a feeling of nervousness, discomfort or even distress when in real or perceived social situations. It often comes during instances when there is potential for embarrassment, judgment or ridicule. It encompasses the anxiety experienced when people are actually around, when planning for a future interaction, and when recalling a past interaction.

Social anxiety, like most anxieties, is believed to be an instinct born out of evolution. Our ancestors were able to survive in the wild because they had a healthy distrust of strangers. Indeed, even young babies are born with separation anxiety; they cry when they are placed in the company of people they don’t know. Social anxiety is an instinct that has kept the human race safe.

In our modern and (sometimes) more civilized times, it is no longer fear of potential physical aggressors thats trigger social anxiety. Other ‘threats’ have replaced physical ones: the threat of rejection, a verbal put down, and the loss of reputation. But the reaction remains the same.

Social anxiety in itself is not a bad thing. Many people have been able to channel their social anxiety positively. The nervous energy can be a motivation to perform better, the fear can be a check against laxity. There are even a few people who get a buzz out of putting themselves in emotionally risky situations!

The only time social anxiety becomes a problem is when it becomes debilitating. This means that the anxiety is so intense, the person loses their capability to control how they’ll respond. It becomes an obstacle at work, at home and in significant relationships. It can also lead to serious physical and emotional consequences, like heart disease and suicidal ideation.

When social anxiety becomes pathological, it is called Social Anxiety Disorder or social phobia. People with Social Anxiety Disorder know that their fears are unreasonable. However, the fears seem bigger than their capability to cope.

Debilitating social anxiety affects more than a tenth of the general population. It affects young children, adolescents and adults. It is believed to be more common among men than women, perhaps because women are generally perceived to be more adept socially than men. Symptoms among persons diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder exist in a range, from mild to severe.

A person with social phobia is recommended to consult a mental health professional immediately. Social phobia is treatable; the most common therapeutic intervention for this disease is Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. People have also reported positive results from hypnosis and psychoanalytic counseling. If professional help is not available, mental health resource sites often have a list of recommended techniques for handling social anxiety.