Is Social Anxiety More Than Shyness?
Comments(0) Is social anxiety or shyness affecting your daily life? Everybody gets a little shy and nervous around others sometimes. First dates, meeting people for the first time, being asked to present the next meet at work, asked to demonstrate something in front of others; in these situations it’s fine to feel a little anxious and apprehensive.
Social anxiety is more than shyness however. Sufferers may find social experiences very difficult to deal with and even intolerable. They may have irrational thoughts such as thoughts of being laughed at or scrutinized by others even if this is not the case.
The term Social phobia and Social Anxiety Disorder are used interchangeably. Many people develop this disorder in their childhood often not recognizing their problem until adulthood. Being called up in front of class, being laughed and teased at by other kids, being left out of groups, being shouted at by teachers; growing up can be tough for a child.
Because diagnosis and treatment needs to face to face help, many sufferers find it very difficult to seek help. Excessive drinking and drug use are not uncommon for sufferers in an effort to hide their problem. In the long term this can have a negative impact on both mental and physical health. Also, there are some severe sufferers that simply think that they aren’t treatable.
There are in fact many therapies such as CBT that have worked with extreme social anxiety sufferers. In addition, new therapies are being developed all the time since social anxiety is a relatively unknown and under-treated anxiety disorder. Read more about these new powerful therapies click here
