Social Anxiety is the fear of social situations that involve interaction with other people. It is a pervasive disorder and causes anxiety and fear in most all areas of a person's life. It can profoundly affect someone’s ability to socialize and communicate with other people.
The latest epidemiological data show social anxiety affects about 7% of the population at any given time. It is chronic because it does not go away on its own. The lifetime prevalence rate (i.e., the chances of developing social anxiety disorder at any time during the lifespan) stands slightly above 13%. It's a common problem that usually starts during the teenage years. For some people it gets better as they get older, although for many it does not go away on its own.
Causes of Social Anxiety Disorder
Social anxiety disorder likely arises from a complex interaction of environment and genes. It seems to run in families. There may be specific susceptibility genes that play a role in the development of anxiety disorders. People with a parent or parents who’ve suffered from social anxiety disorder have a 30-40 percent greater likelihood of developing the condition themselves.
Natural chemicals in the body may also play a role in social anxiety disorder. For instance, an imbalance in the brain chemical serotonin could be a factor. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that helps to regulate mood and emotions, among other things. A person with social anxiety disorder may be extra-sensitive to the effects of serotonin. Both shortages and excesses of serotonin have been linked to social anxiety symptoms, and people with social anxiety disorder struggle to produce serotonin consistently and without fluctuation.
It is also possible that a structure in the brain called the amygdala, which is involved in emotions of fear, memory and aggression, may play a role in controlling the fear response. People who have an overactive amygdala may have a heightened fear response, causing increased anxiety in social situations.
Traumatic experiences can reinforce the idea that the world is a scary and unpredictable place, and it can be especially shocking and disheartening to kids to discover that their caregivers are capable of selfish or hurtful behavior.
Stressful life events and trauma during childhood can influence the development of social anxiety problems. Some of the exposures known to have predictive value for severe social anxiety include: physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, bullying or teasing by peers, family conflicts, domestic violence, and porce, death of or desertion by a parent, and maternal stress during pregnancy or infancy.
Symptoms
Social anxiety is more than shyness. It's an intense fear that does not go away and affects everyday activities, self-confidence, relationships and work or school life.
People with social anxiety usually experience significant distress in the following situations: being introduced to other people, being teased or criticized, being the center of attention, being watched or observed while doing something, having to say something in a formal, public situation, meeting people in authority , feeling insecure and out of place in social situations , meeting other peoples’ eyes, swallowing, writing, talking or making phone calls if in public.
Children with possible social anxiety disorder tend to be worried about being embarrassed in front of peers but not adults.
Physical signs and symptoms include: heart palpitations, excessive sweating, muscle tension, nausea, shaking and trembling, abdominal pain, avoiding eye contact, blushing, weeping, tantrums, clinging to parents, or isolation in children, clammy and cold hands, confusion, crying ,diarrhea, difficulty talking, sometimes including a shaky voice, dry mouth and throat, walk disturbance, in which the inpidual becomes so worried about how they walk that they lose balance or maybe stumble when passing a group of people.
Constant, intense anxiety (fear) is the most common symptom. Many people occasionally worry about social situations, but someone with social anxiety feels overly worried before, during and after them.
Common Complications of Social Phobia
If left untreated, social phobia can severely affect quality of life. Some of the common complications may include: using alcohol to cope with anxiety during social events, misuse of prescription and non-prescription drugs, difficulty forming and maintaining relationships, curtailed education or employment opportunities, depression, suicidal thoughts, isolation from family, peers and community and reluctance to leave the house.
Anxiety disorder increases the risk of developing certain illnesses. Chronic stress, which may be associated with anxiety, can compromise the immune system. This increases the susceptibility to infections, such as colds, the flu, and other viral and bacterial diseases. The demonstration that behavioral states and central nervous system processes are associated with immune function suggests that alterations in the immune system may be found in anxiety disorders.
Anxiety and Allergy
Epidemiological and clinical studies report higher incidences of anxiety and increased emotional reactivity in inpiduals suffering from respiratory allergies.
Allergies could be causing anxiety and other mood disorders in a few different ways. For one, it’s stressful to be sick, and people with allergies frequently feel like they have a bad cold. Anxiety can affect your breathing. On the other hand, the experience of straining to breathe, or of coughing and wheezing, can affect feelings of anxiety.
Allergies trigger the release of the stress hormone cortisol, which can interfere with serotonin. It might inhibit the production of serotonin or make it fail to bind with its receptors properly and thus anxiety might set in.
Allergies also cause inflammatory chemicals called cytokines to collect in the nose and sinuses. From there, these cytokines can leak into the blood, where they might affect the central nervous system and the way the brain functions.
Even daily stress can make asthma symptoms worse. Living with asthma may also cause stress and anxiety. Some studies have shown that asthma is associated with a higher likelihood of developing panic disorder later in life.
Adolescents with asthma may be especially at-risk for social anxiety. Social anxiety disorder is one of the most common anxiety disorders in adolescents. It may be particularly disabling during adolescence because peers play a critical role in social and identity development during this period. The elevation in social anxiety among adolescents with current asthma may suggest the need for identification and treatment of social anxiety in patients with asthma.
Anxiety can cause or make skin problems worse. The itchiness can be related to skin problems that anxiety makes worse, or caused by anxiety directly. People can even experience stress urticaria that develop due to chronic stress, anxiety or tension.
Therapy
Undiagnosed and untreated social anxiety disorder is a devastating condition that can severely limit daily functioning. But social anxiety disorder is highly responsive to treatment, and when sufferers do summon the courage to ask for help they often achieve terrific results, both short-term and long-term.
While antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications are often prescribed for people with social anxiety disorder, psychotherapy is the core of social anxiety treatment. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) in particular has been found to be effective against social anxiety’s most disabling symptoms, and is almost always recommended by mental health professionals who see social anxiety disorder patients.
Prognosis is markedly good. People completing CBT training report a high success rate, compared to control groups. Lack of professional and knowledgeable therapists is the biggest and most relevant problem to overcoming social anxiety.
Tips For Coping With Social Anxiety
Avoid negative coping strategies. Face your fears, don't hide from them. Hiding behind your smartphone to avoid social interaction could do more harm than good. There is a positive correlation between excessive smartphone use and the presence of social anxiety.
Re frame your thoughts. Countering negative thoughts with positive ones could also help you overcome your fears.
The problem is that we think all stress is bad. Moderate amounts of stress is good, it can actually make you stronger, smarter and happier. It improves cognitive function, it can improve memory, it can give you energy and it can help you handle more stress.
Do something nice for someone. Distract yourself from all the worries and negative thoughts by doing something nice for someone else. Doing something as simple as performing a small act of kindness could also help counteract social anxiety.
Activities that make you happy can release feel-good chemicals in the brain that relax you during potentially stressful encounters. Listen to music you love or watch a little TV. Engage in some mild exercise or meditation. Deep or rhythmic breathing is a good way to decrease symptoms of anxiety.
Plan ahead for social situations that make you nervous can help you feel more confident. Breakdown your fears. Get outside and be mindful.
Change your brain, the brain is very flexible and malleable and changeable and has the ability to form new connections between parts of the brain that don’t communicate that much. It takes time, repetition, and new experiences to help solidify new thoughts we’re trying to practice. Often, our worries about an upcoming situation are worse than the situation itself. Surround yourself with optimists and make a short list of people who make you feel good.
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