National Library of Medicine
PubMed Central
Social Anxiety Disorder
Overview
Mental health information surrounding social anxiety disorder.
Defining Social Anxiety Disorder & Its Prevelance
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) involves the fear or anxiety of social occures for which an individual may or may not be facing judgement from others in public. Being in these social situations consistently fear or anxiety in the person, and they feel they will be judged negatively. Because of this, these individuals often avoid social situations that may enhance their internal anxiety, which causes imparment in their social abilities or impedes their functionality in society. Research has shown between 5-10% of the world's population suffers from social anxiety disorder, with between 8.4-15% of the world will experience social anxiety at some point in their lifetime, showing that this disorder is not limited to a select few.
Stereotypes of Social Anxiety Disorder
1."Scared of Public Speaking"
False: Various social settings can trigger symptoms of social anxiety, and while public speaking is the most common setting, it is not the only. Other social anxiety triggers include attending social gatherings such as parties, dining in a restaurant, and even in more severe cases, answering the telephone. Social anxiety symptoms can happen anywhere and anytime.
2. "You're just shy"
False: Shyness and social anxiety do share common traits, they are not the same. Shyness is deemed as a personality trait that does not require therapy nor treatment. However, social anxiety disorder is a diagnosis that requires treatment to prevent any worsening. There is also a difference in symptom severity, such as people with social anxiety disorder have much worse symptoms. In addition, social anxiety disruptes their daily functioning in the world, while shyness does not.
3. "Trauma causes Social Anxiety"
False: While some people with social anxiety may have had a traumatic event that triggered their disorder, this is not always the case for every case. Sometimes, social anxiety disorder can be triggered by trivial things, or nothing at all. This is something that can be discussed with a professional therapist and can look through your history. However, it is not prevelant enough for this to be a general consensus.
Self-Coping with Social Anxiety Disorder
When feeling uncomfortable in social situations, there are some technique that can help lessen your anxiety:
1. Trying to Relax
Studies have shown taking slow, calming, breaths can calm your fight or flight response in these situations, especially since our bodies naturally begin breathing faster when anxious. By taking slow breaths through your nose, you may not eliminate anxiety, but it will make the social situations a bit more bearable.
2. Reshaping Thoughts
Often with social anxiety, those with the disorder suffering from negative thoughts about not only themselves, but about the social situation. Some thoughts such as "Everyone will stare at me" or "No one will like me" are examples of what this can sound like. However, with reshaping your thoughts, a person will realize that these thoughts are hypothesis of what they think they think will happen, and not based on facts. By training yourself not to heighten the situation, clarity will come to your thoughts, and anxiety might lessen.
Intervention & Treatment
While self-coping mechanism are temporarily helpful, medical and professional help is the best form a treatment in the long-term for social anxiety.
1. Medication
Medication has been used frequently by medical professionals to reduce social anxiety symptoms. Although there are multiple medications, the advice of medical professions are helpful in decided what is best for a patient. In addition, it is not adviced that medication be the only form of treatment. Multiple studies have found that the best form a treatment is a combination of medication and therapy.
2. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
CBT has been proven to help multiple disorders, general anxiety, and specified forms of anxiety such as social anxiety disorder. With a professional, strategies address the physical reaction, thoughts, and behaviors included in social situations. The physical reaction, according to researchers, with CBT will allow the body to calm itself and reduce the physical symptoms of SAD. In addition, a professional can help with reshaping your thoughts, by providing strategies to avoid such negative thoughts. Finally, by reshaping the behavior, will help with stopping the avoidance of social situations. CBT is a great mechanism that will address all forms of social anxiety disorder, to make life a bit more liveable.