What Is Social Anxiety Disorder?
Social anxiety disorder has been described as intense worry and anxiety with regard to events requiring social interaction. Anxiety disorders may last months or years, unlike a brief episode of anxiety caused by a stressful event. Such disorders may actually worsen if immediate treatment is not obtained.
Anxiety disorders may accompany other mental or behavioral illnesses, including alcohol addiction or drug abuse, which may potentially mask the anxiety symptoms or make them worse. There are various types of anxiety disorders and one of the most debilitating is social anxiety disorder also known as social phobia.
A diagnosis of social anxiety disorder is normally made when an individual experiences tremendous anxiety and extreme discomfort or even fear in everyday social situations. They may worry for days or weeks leading up to a planned social activity or event. This dread and anxiety may become so severe that it interferes with normal daily activities. Social anxiety is a medically recognized disorder that seriously lessens an individual’s quality of life. Social phobias may cause an individual to experience intense, persistent, and constant fear of being watched, criticized and judged by others.
There may be various causes for social anxiety disorder and social phobia including genetic predisposition, early growth and development, and experiences in later life. These causes are categorized into the following:
Genetic Pre-Disposition: Were your parents shy or did they show signs of social anxiety or social phobia disorder? It is possible that a child may inherit genetic code from their parents that amplifies shyness into social anxiety disorder.
Development: Social anxiety may emerge at different stages of development. The need for solitude by a young person may be an indication of social anxiety due to the importance of physical looks and performance in school during early and adolescent years. Traumatic or stressful events in early developmental stages of life may increase the risk of social anxiety disorder.
Chemical Imbalances in the Brain: Those with anxiety disorder may potentially have abnormalities in the functioning of their anxiety response system. Our anxiety response systems are influenced by four areas of our brains namely; the brain system (cardiovascular and respiratory functions), limbic system (mood and anxiety), prefrontal cortex (appraisals of risk and danger), and motor cortex (control of muscles).
Those with social phobias usually realize that their fears about being with people are irrational and abnormal, but they have great difficulty overcoming them. Should they decide to confront their fears and seek social interaction with others, they are usually extremely worried ahead of time, uncomfortable throughout the whole social encounter, and worried afterward that they were judged the whole time.
The physical symptoms that normally accompany social anxiety disorder include:
· Tendency to blush often
· Excessive sweating
· Trembling or shaking
· Nausea
· Difficulty talking
When these symptoms occur, people with social anxiety disorder usually feel as though they are the center of attention and everyone is watching them.
The good news is—social anxiety disorder is curable!
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