Social Anxiety: The Least Understood Anxiety Disorder

People who suffer from social anxiety may find themselves experiencing feelings such as nervousness, anxiousness and embarrassment in public settings. Socializing is often difficult with sufferers and they may be preoccupied with fear of rejection.

Most people have experienced a nervous or embarrassing moment in the life. Perhaps it was in a meeting when you had to give a presentation or when someone told an embarrassing story about you. Most people would feel anxious or a little embarrassed at these times.

This however does not mean that everyone is a sufferer of social anxiety . Social anxiety is much more unbearable. For instance, imagine a non-sufferer about to walk onto a podium to give a public speech. That person might experience nerves and feel a little anxious.

A sufferer however would anticipate doing something embarrassing and feel extremely anxious. They are likely to find themselves extremely distressed and unable to sleep nights before. Feelings such as extreme fear and self-consciousness are common with sufferers as well as thoughts of being scrutinized or ridiculed by others.

Social anxiety has various possible causes. Like many anxiety disorders it can run in families genetically as well as be passed on as a learned habit. It can also be a learned response from negative social experiences. People who have a sensitive response to stress and fear are also more likely to become sufferers.

Day to day life can be unbearable to live with for the social anxiety sufferer. A sufferer might even see that his or her fear is ridiculous and illogical. This however does not stop them from experiencing the symptoms. Success with psychotherapies does mean that there is light at the end of the tunnel for sufferers however.

A large proportion of sufferers live their lives undiagnosed mainly because social anxiety is the least understood. They may just see themselves as extremely shy or they may recognize that they have a problem but simply do not know what it is. Moreover, social anxiety sufferers may be afraid to seek help because of their condition.

Without help, symptoms are likely to worsen. Another problem is that anxiety disorder sufferers are at higher risk of developing depression . Excessive sleep or insomnia are common sleep problems that can affect sufferers. It's not uncommon for sufferers to use alcohol and drugs to help them escape and even try and manage their problem.

Understanding the causes and symptoms of social anxiety is the first step to overcoming this disorder. It's important to seek help and treatment. Symptoms can be reduced immensely and even eliminated with certain therapies and treatments that are available.