Social Phobia And Social Anxiety Disorder

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

Social phobias or social anxiety disorder is one of the most common personality disorders affecting adolescents and young adults in the United States. According to the National Institute for Mental Health, approximately 40 million

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).

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,

The disorder typically begins in childhood, and the National Institute of Mental Health estimates that 3.7 percent of 18 to 54 year olds in the United States have social anxiety disorder, with women diagnosed twice as often as men (1). Although researchers are not completely sure of the biological basis of social anxiety, some believe that its basis may lie in the amygdala, a small portion of the brain that controls fear response. NIMH scientists have also found a possible genetic component: through research on mice, they have found a gene that relates to fearfulness (1). Additionally, hormones may play a role, specifically fluctuations in estrogen and progesterone levels in women (4). Environment may also be important, as people with social anxiety may learn the behavior from watching and patterning those around them (1). Treatment may include the use of medications such as selective seretonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), monamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) and beta blockers specifically for "performance phobias." Individuals may also benefit from behavioral therapy, which involves gradual exposure to feared situations (1).

Social anxiety are a group of conditions that bring people to risk with their everyday lives with severe symptoms (Izenburg, 2003). People with social anxiety disorder tend to worry about everything. Usually people tend to develop social phobia as young adults and it progresses over time. “The fear of being evaluated, criticized, censored, embarrassed ( Doctor Kahn, 1989). These effects will most likely effect adults when it comes time to go to job interviews and even to except a promotion and become a boss. Social phobia does not allow people to progress and only allows them to say how they are because they have a fear of being judged and even seen. Not only that but social phobia tends to also not allow people to do the following: eating, drinking, speaking, and urinating. “People with social anxiety disorder may

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).

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 phobia (anxiety) is an anxiety disorder characterized by intense fear in social situations where people have irrational thoughts that will at some point be negatively evaluated. This fear is particularly acute in situations where a person important to other people's opinion (eg. In an interview with authority or interact with an attractive member of the opposite sex). A person may be aware that their fear is irrational or overcome it is not

‘Social phobia is characterised by intense and persistent fear of social situations in which scrutiny and embarrassment could occur’. (Orsillo & Hammond 2001, p.159) The individual with social phobia often feels they are being looked at, studied and critically analysed. Social anxiety is unlike other phobias in that it has the constant likelihood of being verified as being true. (Beck 2005, p.151)

The Social anxiety Association classifies social anxiety as the fear of interacting with other and social situations. Social anxiety causes fear and anxiety in most if not all aspects of ones lives. Social anxiety is the fear of being negatively judge or evaluated by others. It is a chronic disease that it does not go away on its own, only direct cognitive-behavioral therapy can help people overcome their social anxiety. There are a few situations that can trigger social anxiety such as being introduced to

If a person has social phobia, they fear speaking in public, being embarrassed, or eating on public. They often break into sweats from anxiety, and can suffer a panic attack. Although, social phobia and avoidant personality disorder are two different disorders that overlap each other. A person who meets all the criteria for social phobia, most likely will meet the criteria for avoidant personality disorder (Lampe & Sunderland, 2015). The different between the both is that social phobia tends to sweat and have panic attacks. Social Phobia is known to start in adolescences between the ages of 15 to 20 (Kose, Solmaz, Celikel,Citak, Ozturk, tosun, Noguchi, & Sayar, 2009). However, studies have showed that avoidant personality disorder should be a serve level of social phobia (Eikenas, Hummelen, Abrahamsen, & Andrea, 2013). How can a person function with both

Social anxiety is a disorder in which individuals assume that they will be negatively evaluated. This results in an extreme fear of social situations or performance-based situations (Iverach, Rapee, Wong, & Lowe, 2017, p. 542) for a period of time lasting longer than six months (Brundage et al., p. 498). Those with social anxiety fear negative judgement during

Social anxiety disorder, also called social phobia, is a disorder in which a person has an excessive and unreasonable fear of social situations. Social Anxiety causes intense nervousness and self-consciousness arises from a fear of being closely watched, judged, and criticized by others.