Essay On Social Anxiety Disorders: A Cure For Shyness

Though most people might believe that mental disorders are rare, it is actually common, and nearly 42.5 million of American adults in the United States suffer from it. A common diagnosed mental disorder are anxiety disorders. A specific type of the anxieties is social anxiety. Social anxiety is a type of specific phobia that a person has an excessive fear of social situations. A common form would be public speaking. This type of disorder has the intense nervousness and self-consciousness when being watched, and fears the feeling of being criticized. Though social anxiety is more of an internal illness, physical symptoms are shown. The physical symptoms include sweating, shaking, muscle tension, upset stomach, and excessive heart pounding. Without treatment, this type of feeling builds the fear of that individuals by distorting their thinking of false beliefs about the social situations. The negative and fearful thoughts prevail the individual’s normal daily routine, and this can lead into more fearful social situation.

The DSM-5 (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) defines social anxiety as, “A persistent fear of one or more social or performance situations in which the person is exposed to unfamiliar people or to possible scrutiny by

Social anxiety disorder (SAD), also know as social phobia, affects between 1.6% and 4.0% of children. Like other anxiety disorders, girls are more likely to be diagnosed with SAD than boys (Chavira & Stein, 2002). The defining features of SAD are excessive self-consciousness that is more than just common shyness. Individuals with SAD fear social or performance situations where they may face scrutiny or humiliation. The two subtypes of SAD are generalized and non-generalized. Approximately 75% of individuals with SAD experience the generalized type, which is characterized by experiencing distress in almost all social situations. Non-generalized SAD is characterized by experiencing anxiety in only one or two types of interpersonal situations, like public speaking. Generalized social anxiety disorder has high comorbidity with major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, specific phobias, and ADHD. Non-generalized SAD however has low comorbidity with other disorders. Children with selective mutism have a significantly high comorbidity rate with SAD, about 97% to 100% (Chavira & Stein, 2005).

People with this disorder have trouble talking to people, meeting new people, and attending social activities. They fear being judged by others. They may understand that their fears are irrational or unreasonable, but feel powerless to overcome them. This is symptom has nothing to do with shyness. Shyness is usually a short-term thing and people deal with it better. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) approximately 15 million American adults have social anxiety

Social Phobia can also be addressed as Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD); the scientific name for this disorder is ‘Anthropophobia’, which according to Right Diagnosis (2014) means an irrational fear of people or groups of people. The National Health Service (2014) describes Anthropophobia or Social Phobia as a tenacious fear of social situations and people; furthermore, the NHS credits Social Phobia to be the most common anxiety disorder. According to the International Classification of Diseases 2010 (ICD-10), symptoms of this disorder have been known to manifest themselves as blushing, hand tremors, nausea and the frequent urgency of micturition. These symptoms appear when the sufferer is faced with situations where social interactions may arise. Other symptoms may include palpations, dizziness, panic attacks, diarrhoea, muscle tension, excessive sweating, shaking, poor social skills, low self-esteem and high sensitivity to criticism. Due to the nature of the symptoms that accompany Social Phobia,

In simple terms, social anxiety is a disorder that dramatically influences people's daily lives and their relationship with society [10]. In addition to this, social phobia leads people to experience excessive stress and deep fears intensively in a social situation [10]. It should be noted that social anxiety disorder manifests itself with various symptoms that can be listed such as blushing, sweating, trembling, tachycardia, nausea, stuttering, cluttering and more [11,12].

For individuals who suffer from social anxiety, everyday situations can develop into horrifying and dreadful events. According to the Social Anxiety Institute there is a difference between shyness and

, 2009). A major reason for why people might experience social anxiety disorder is because they have the idea that they won’t be accepted by their peers. Social anxiety disorder can go unknown, some are unaware that they have this disorder, it is easy to perceive it as just being nervous in a crowd or being shy, but when you start to avoid social environments with family and peers that’s when it should be considered a problem. Also I feel that if one is always talking down on themselves, such as saying “I won’t fit in” or “no one will accept me” then this individual should seek mental health help. Filho et al.

Social Phobia, also called social anxiety disorder (SAD), is one of the most common, but misconstrued mental health problems in society. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), over 15 million adults suffer from the disorder. First appearing in the DSM-III as Social Phobia, and later in the DSM-IV as Social Anxiety Disorder, this newly established disorder denotes afflicting stress and anxiety associated with social situations (Zakri 677). According to James W. Jefferson, two forms of Social phobia exist: specific and generalized. Specific social phobia indicates anxiety limited to few performance situations, while generalized indicates anxiety in all social situations (Jefferson). Many people often interchangeably link this disorder to shyness––a personality trait. However, although they have striking similarities, the two are divergent. To begin with, SAD has an extensive etiology ranging from multiple factors. Furthermore, symptoms of various aspects accompany SAD. Moreover, SAD has detrimental impacts affecting quality of life. Lastly, SAD has numerous methods of treatment. Social Phobia is prevalent in both women and men beginning at the onset of puberty (ADAA).

     Social anxiety disorder or social phobia is a much more common problem then psychologists originally thought. Millions of people al over the world

Knowing about social anxiety is a great way to find out the signs and symptoms of dealing with this disorder. Social anxiety is the most common issue people deal with in their lives and it can affect the way the feel about themselves, and most importantly, the way they communicate towards others. So many people have this feeling inside them that they can barely control, they experience pounding heart, nervousness, muscle tension, blushing, or even being lightheaded. But also, emotional symptoms of social anxiety can differ in many ways because the person usually has this fear built up inside of them because they feel like they are being watched, feeling embarrassed, and also making mistakes that makes them feel humiliated. Well, “a person with

Social anxiety how is it different from shyness? Social anxiety disorder, also called social phobia, is an anxiety disorder in which a person has an excessive and unreasonable fear of social situations. Anxiety (intense nervousness) and self-consciousness arise from a fear of being closely watched, judged, and criticized by others. As to where shyness is where you tend to feel awkward and or nerves about meeting new people causing physical symptoms such as blushing, sweating, a pounding heart or upset stomach.

“Social Anxiety Disorder is often characterized by persistent fear of social or performance situations resulting from the possibility of negative judgement, embarrassment, or humiliation” (Duval, Javanbackht, & Liberzon 2015). A person who suffers from Social Anxiety, which is commonly referred to as Social Phobia, will ordinarily encounter the symptoms of anxiety – this includes: tremors, a shaky voice, confusion, heart palpitations, dry mouth, sweating, diarrhea,

others, being criticized, or being observed by others. Symptoms of social anxiety are high levels of stress, negative thought process, racing heart, sweating palms, etc. (Richards, 2015).

For instance, most people have felt shy or insecure on occasion, however, it does not interfere with their daily routines. On the other hand, people suffering from social anxiety disorder experience severe emotional, physical and behavioral symptoms. These symptoms hinder the person from functioning normally on a daily basis (Smith/Jaffe-Gill, 2014). Emotionally, the person fears being criticized and judged by others in everyday social situations. He or she is scared that they might embarrass or humiliate themselves. Frequently, when speaking in public, a person with social anxiety disorder might think, “Was that a yawn? She thinks I’m boring!” (Stein, 2007). These negative thoughts lead to serious physical symptoms, such as shortness of breath,