Social Anxiety Chemical Imbalances Summary

Social anxiety is caused by some parts of the brain involved in fear and concern. It is also caused by the misunderstanding of others’ behavior, bullying, family problems, and sexual abuse. According to the Social Anxiety Support community, the same factors that are responsible for any strong human emotional experience: genetic makeup, biological factors, and the culmination of learning experiences throughout lives. If any family member suffered social anxiety, that member can pass it on to another family member. The brain plays a role in social anxiety because the chemicals of the medications that are used to treat this disorder impact the levels of neurotransmitters. Life experiences also plays a role in social anxiety because if someone always experiences a time where he/she was judged or made fun of, that person is going to give up doing other things related to that experience and he/she will have negative expectations and

Social anxiety is “a fear of humiliation or of being judged by others, and an avoidance of social situations where attention centers on the individual” (Martis). According to the Social Anxiety Institute, social anxiety has become the third largest psychological disorder, following depression and alcoholism (Richards). Commonly, victims of this social phobia have problems pursuing social environments, interactions, and relationships (“Social Anxiety Disorder”). The failure to fulfill daily requirements in jobs, social settings, and relationships often leaves them feeling “powerless, alone, or even ashamed” (“Social Anxiety Disorder”). Today in America,“15 million [people] suffer[from] the disorder” (“Social Anxiety Disorder”). Of the 15 million American adults affected, women and men are equally prone to develop the phobia (“Social Phobia (Social Anxiety Disorder)”). Currently, the prevalence rate for acquiring social anxiety disorder is “13-14% of all Americans” and continues to rise (Richards). As the number of people affected by social anxiety continues to rise, the understanding of social anxiety’s causes, effects, and treatments is crucial.

Many changes happen in the body when a person becomes anxious. One of the first changes is that the individual experiences an increased breathing rate. Breathing rapidly throws off the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the body thereby, triggering additional physical anxiety symptoms such as dizziness, a feeling of suffocation, increased heart rate, and muscle tension. Learning to slow down breathing can help bring physical symptoms of anxiety back under control. In addition to

The diagnosis of social phobia has seen substantial changes in the last 25 years, from its first appearance in the DSM-III published in 1980 to the DSM-IV. In DSM-III, phobic disorders and anxiety states were regarded as two types of anxiety disorders, and social phobia was considered a phobic disorder. What do you think of when you hear the words Social Anxiety? Is it a mental illness or is it just a phobia? While there are many feelings tied with social anxiety, social anxiety is a mental illness that people go through in their lives. From personally struggling with this I have always wanted to know what are the causes and how can I deal with this issue. I decided this would be a great topic to do my future research paper on. While researching information I came across a source I believe will help me write my paper. I found this source by using the Tacoma Community College library search. I then typed ‘Social Anxiety Disorders’and found the article “Social Anxiety Disorder: Questions for the DSM-V. The article ‘Social Anxiety Disorder: Questions for the DSM-V by Susan M. Bögels is a credible source based on the author’s educational background, other pieces of work from the author, and a distinguished publishing company.

For my primary diagnosis, I have chosen Social Anxiety Disorder 300.23 (F40.10) with a Z code of Social Exclusion or Rejection V62.4 (Z60.4). I have chosen the Z code of Social Exclusion or Rejection because of the case study symptomatology and certain aspects of details of Nadine’s case. Nadine is afraid of being humiliated and is afraid of going to public places, based off of the strong evidence of her past experiences of being bullied at school. Another possible Z code could be Parent -Child Relational Problem V61.20 (Z62.820) given the criteria of feelings of estrangement and hostility expressed by Nadine toward her mother. She expresses that she does not want to “be anything like her mother”(quoted from case study).

Social anxiety disorder is the extreme fear of being scrutinized and judged by others in a social or performance situation. Social anxiety can be devastating to those who suffer from it, this disorder is not just simply extreme shyness this is an actual disorder. (AADA, 2015)

suggested that there is an imbalance of neurotransmitters may be what is contributing to anxiety

Social anxiety disorder (SAD), also known as social phobia, is the most common mental illness in the United States. About 40 million people suffer from this mental disorder. Many tend to confuse this disorder with shyness and nervousness, which are not considered a part of the phobia. Having a SAD can interfere with one’s daily life cycle. People who have SAD often starts to develop this illness during their childhood and adolescence years. Patients are affected with this mental illness for many years before being diagnosed. Past experiences in a person 's childhood can form and shape their lives so that they may end up having social anxiety disorder. Some past experiences like bullying, depression and low self esteem can lead to the fear of socially interacting or communicating with other people.

Imagine being 17 and the whole school administration thinking that you are a drug addict because of some ridiculous dark-humored tweets you posted on Twitter. Well, that is exactly what happened to my good friend, Josh. He has always had a dry sense of humor about things, meaning, he said or found things funny that were not funny to most people. Basically he tweeted about selling his medications, Klonopin and Topamax, because they were not working; I replied and said something about Xanax, I believe (we both take medication to help our depression so we just laugh about all the drugs that are prescribed to keep us somewhat sane). The next day, he was called in to the office to discuss these tweets. Soon enough, everyone thought he was a drug

The diagnosis of social phobia requires the symptoms to be “consistent and persistent”, as well as causing significant distress which damage social, occupational, or other important areas of life functioning (Irena, 2015, p.). Unlike shyness, where most people occasionally experience in their lives, social phobia is much more disruptive and pathological (Jefferson, 2001). For people with social phobia, they could even feel the pain before an event that they know would involve evaluation actually happen (NIMH, 2013; Irena, 2015, p.).

Although, all anxiety disorders essentially overlap each other still they can be differentiated by examining closely the symptoms of anxiety, and situations which are feared, including the exploration of cognition.

It seems clear to me that social anxiety disorder (SAD) has a huge negative impact on the lives of the individuals diagnosed with it – to the point where they are struggling to just get through the day. Those diagnosed with SAD feel an intense amount of fear and distress during everyday interactions with other people (or even just the thought of having to interact with others may provoke anxiety), and those emotions are so extreme to the point where normal, daily activities pose as a huge challenge for them. For instance, according to the video, James could not go grocery shopping without feeling anxious and overly self-conscious. Home was his ultimate comfort zone, and just being outside of home for more than an hour was unbearable for him at times. Pam was also another individual who absolutely dreaded being in environments outside her home. Her condition had a strong, negative impact on work, where every moment at work would be torturous for her.

Many people upon hearing about social anxiety for the first time assume that it is the same thing as being shy and that SAD isn't a real disorder. Social anxiety is a mental disorder while shyness is a personality trait. While social anxiety and shyness have overlapping traits they are fundamentally different (“Shyness). How they can be mixed up I'm not really sure. While SAD is a recently discovered mental illness, it was diagnosed in the1980’s, it is understandable that the public is not well informed about the subject. Some assume that social anxiety is shyness with negative traits tacked on at the end. This is incorrect many people with social anxiety are extroverted and their anxiety is simply holding them back and restricting them. Those

Social anxiety is condition that has been described since the days of Hippocrates. Hippocrates described an individual who would avoid social outings due to being timid, bashful, and fear of being misused, disgraced, make a fool of himself, or being sick and believes he is constantly being watched. Will the man who suffers from social anxiety react differently to mistakes based on social context? A study by Barker, Troller-Renfree, Pine, & Fox in 2015 attempted to test that. Baker et al. tried to measure the error-related negativity, an event potential that occurs 50 ms after the faulty response. The purpose of the study was to see if there is a relationship between the magnitude of the ERN and social anxiety.

Fear is a common emotion exhibited by people who stutter (PWS). The fear of negative evaluation is commonly displayed by PWS (Fjola, 1246); when this fear is significantly excessive, the PWS may meet the criteria for a clinical diagnosis of social anxiety (Brundage, Winters, & Beilby, p. 499). Social anxiety frequently causes PWS to isolate themselves from social interactions, and, when in situations, to utilize safety behaviors to prevent stuttering and reduce anxiety. Safety behaviors consequently maintain social anxiety in PWS rather than exacerbate the disorder (Lowe et al., 2017, pp. 1246-1247). More is known regarding the development of social anxiety is adults who stutter (AWS) than the information pertaining to children who stutter (CWS) and their fear of negative evaluation which results in social anxiety (Iverach, Menzies, O’Brian, Packman, & Onslow, 2011, p. 228). The difference in available information may be due to the thought that social anxiety is a short-term effect in CWS but a life-long effect in AWS (Iverach, Jones, McLellan, Lyneham, Menzies, Onslow, & Rapee, 2016, p. 15).