About Social Anxiety

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Social anxiety disorder (social phobia) is a term given to an affliction wherein the sufferer experiences a fear response in a social situation in which there is no real threat or discernible reason to trigger such a response.

The situations which illicit such worry vary widely depending on the person – among the more common ones are public speaking or during interviews. Feelings of anxiety during such situations are familiar to most people, and suffering in such an environment is not in itself sufficient for diagnosis.

For sufferers of social anxiety, situations could be: getting served in a supermarket, standing next to a member of the opposite sex, using a telephone, being engaged in a conversation with a stranger, or being asked for input into a conversation.
Reactions in such situations are also varied: excessive blushing, trembling, dizziness, sweating and nausea are but a few of the most common.
For both triggers and symptoms, the list is practically endless, and while non-sufferers may think that the persons reaction is overblown and controllable if desired, the sufferer knows only too well that it is completely involuntary and the humiliation is painfully real.
The opinion or comment of observers will only serve to reinforce their reaction by confirming that the reaction is abnormal.

For some reason, the fear of the reaction seems to lead to the reaction itself.

If you are not a sufferer, try to put yourself in their shoes.
Let’s say you’re afraid of spiders. Imagine every time you think about how afraid you are of them, a spider appears right beside you. That’s what social anxiety is like.

An example I am only too familiar with from my own experience is as follows:

I am at a supermarket checkout and the cashier asks for money. I take out my change and start counting my money. I may think: “I’m taking too long, the people behind me in the queue and the cashier are staring at me. Don’t blush.” I blush. The people see me blushing, they’re going to say something or laugh. They’re staring at me, so I blush more, and so the cycle continues. I can’t concentrate on anything but the blushing, because of the people staring. In the end I just dump all my change in the cashier's hand and get her to count it, perhaps while holding my head in the hope that the people will think I am not blushing but feel ill.

At the end of this routine, I may look around me to see the reaction of others. The cashier may be looking at me strangely because of my counting for no reason. This will serve as a confirmation to myself that people think my blushing is weird, even if that is not the reason behind the odd look.

This reinforces my fear of blushing and, as I mentioned earlier, this will increase the likelihood of reacting in this way in the future.

Impact

Social phobias have the potential to devastate the sufferer’s life.
Their fear of humiliation through the appearance of their symptoms may lead them to avoid social interaction and become reclusive.
This isolation is involuntary, brought on by their condition, and as such may lead to the person suffering loneliness and subsequent depression.

If left untreated, the sufferer may turn to substance abuse for relief, and thus create a whole host of problems for themselves.

To make matters worse, the very nature of the affliction makes taking the first step and seeing a doctor about treatment very difficult, as they may fear the doctor will humiliate them.

It is highly reccomended that someone who suspects they suffer from social anxiety contact a doctor as they will be able to give advice on the best ways of combating your problem or refer you to someone else with experience in social anxiety disorder.