Social Anxiety Disorders Case Study

Social anxiety, also known as social phobia, is a feeling of fear and discomfort of being judged badly by other people. Anyone can experience this at work, school, special events, and even at doing everyday things. Many people have experienced a feeling like this and that is normal. But having a social anxiety disorder can have a huge affect in someone’s life style. The effects of having disorder can lead to bad results in life.

The study of Social anxiety shows no clear causes for its variety of symptoms, but psychologists have been able to determined triggers and possible factors for its development. As psychologists continue to study social phobia, they have determined many possible causes. Since the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, psychologists have

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

No one wants to feel invisible or have a constant fear they will embarrass themselves just simply by speaking. In the United States today, even with our say-anything society, many people struggle with these exact worries on a day-today basis. Social anxiety is a disorder that many, even doctors, write off as having shy or introverted qualities. Despite the lack of knowledge and awareness for the disorder, social anxiety is a growing problem in our country and around the world.

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].

Aloof, shy and interested are just some of the words to describe how some people perceive someone with social anxiety disorder. Approximately seven percent of adults in the United States deal with it. Social anxiety disorder, also known as social phobia, is a disorder where a person has an intense fear of a public or social situation. It first appears with a median onset age of 13, however it starts to show about 75% of the time between the ages of 8 and 15.

Social anxiety disorder is a mental disorder that many people struggle with each and every day. Social anxiety disorder, according to The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, is defined and categorized as “a marked and persistent fear of one or more social/performance situations” (Vanin, Helsey &Morgan,2008). It is the fear of being, or interacting, in social situations, which bring on feelings of self-consciousness and judgement from others. Social anxiety disorder, and many other anxiety disorders for that matter, go undetected, and therefore, unresolved. This leads to many people struggling with it their whole lives, which, in turn, causes problems when trying to achieve goals and being successful.

Social phobia disorder is the least known of all anxiety disorders. Social phobia disorder, also called social anxiety disorder, is known to appear in people who fear observation in public situations (HealthGuide.org). People with this disorder fear other’s judgment of their own actions during social occasions. People with this disorder tend to appear self-conscious in uncomfortable situations and show familiar symptoms of anxiety. According to Amanda MacMillan’s article, some symptoms of anxiety

It is unclear how shyness and social anxiety disorder are related. Not all those who are shy meet criteria for social anxiety disorder, although there’s much overlap in these two conditions. Somatic responses of both groups were similar; heart palpitations, sweating, trembling, and blushing. People with social anxiety disorder were more likely to be occupationally and socially impaired, more likely to avoid social encounters, and had an earlier age of onset and a more chronic course.

Phil Topham and Gram Russell once asked whether social anxiety disorder constitutes a hidden disability. In an article [Social Anxiety in Higher Education], they have said “although anxiety is accepted as part of the learning process, there is little thought given to the impact of social anxiety.” It is understandable to that many people have many different kinds of fears, but with those with social anxiety disorder (or social phobia), that fear is intensified (Harvard Mental Health Letter, 1994). Numerous of people still do not fully understand when someone has social anxiety disorder, but then again it is not easy to identify it or many mistaken them being shy rather than someone with an actually disorder (Topham & Russell, 2008; Anderson,

With anxiety there is more than just one type of it. That also helps to separate the two from each other. Jan Hoffman of New York Times did an experiment on college students throughout the duration of her research and has come to some conclusions. One being,that specific social anxiety or otherwise known as performance anxiety arises only in few situations. It is to be taken seriously for those whose work requires them to perform publicly. The other type of anxiety is simply Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and is the least common of the two. It occurs in a wide variety of settings and has pervasive effects on a person's life. These are the people who fear being talked to or called on in class, in a restaurant, or anywhere where they may feel “judged.” These are the ones that are often mis diagnosed with simply being shy, but it goes further beyond

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

Among all anxiety problems, social anxiety disorder is most common anxiety issue and third most common problem in all mental complications (American Psychiatric Association, 2000; Hofmann & Bogels, 2006). SAD is a mental disorder which has a tendency to become chronic and badly disturbs normal functions of life if not diagnosed and treated in time (Beesdo-Baum, et al., 2012; Garcia-Lopez, Piqueras, Diaz-Castela, & Ingles, 2008). It is also among the most prevailing mental disorders and is described in Criterion A of DSM-V as “Marked fear or anxiety about one or more social situations in which the individual is exposed to possible scrutiny by others. Examples include social interactions (e.g., having a conversation, meeting unfamiliar people), being observed (e.g., eating or drinking), and performing in front of others (e.g., giving a speech)” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). A specific amount of anxiety is always anticipated socially and helps an individual managing future threats (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). But having social anxiety means that anxiety is too much for normal functioning during social situations and often interferes with

Social anxiety disorder can also be called social phobia where a person can feel an intense of fear and extremely anxious not want to be humiliated in a social situation such as embarrassing themselves in front of other people. Someone suffering from social anxiety seems to think that others may be better than they are or speak more intelligent than them in public also they feel unable to hang out and mingle with others if at a gathering. Sadly they have problems with focusing all their time on the littler mistakes made by them in a social situation. Not many people understand social anxiety disorder which is one of the largest psychological problem in the world today. (Psyhcentral.com 1.)