Psychiatry
January 24, 2019
Social Anxiety is a very common disorder. Like many psychiatric diagnoses, it's defined by a group of symptoms that commonly occur together. We've listed the top symptoms below to help provide a better idea of how doctors define social anxiety. If you have some or most of these symptoms, there is a good chance you may have some form of social anxiety.
While we can all feel a bit nervous about giving a big presentation or a wedding toast, social anxiety is an excessive, sometimes crippling fear, that gets in the way of living life and causes significant distress.
Patients with social anxiety are often anxious about routine or otherwise normal social situations. These include public speaking, conversations, and meeting new people.
Often, eating or drinking in a group can also induce anxiety from the fear of embarassing one's self while eating or drinking when others are potentially watching.
These fears are often of potential judgement and humiliation from others. It's not so much the fear of spilling food or wine on oneself, rather its the fear of others seeing it and laughing at them or judging them for their poor manners.
Additionally, individuals can be anxious about being anxious. From past experiences, individuals with social anxiety may fear that they will get noticable symptoms of anxiety, including sweating or trembling. They can become hypervigilent about these symptoms. They may fear that others will notice these symptoms and judge them for it, further adding to their anxiety.
Individuals with social anxiety are often aware that they have excessive fears, beyond normal "jitters" or nervousness. They will however still go out of their way to avoid these situations and to avoid the possiblity of public humiliation, embrassment, or judgement from others.
Because of this avoidance, social anxiety can often have significant impacts on an individual's social and professional life.
The anxiety an individual feels within can manifest itself as medical symptoms as well. These symptoms include trembling, when you feel your muscles tremble and shake uncontrollably, and sweating. Individuals can feel their hearts beat faster or pumping out of their chest. They may also feel a rush of blood to their face and start blushing.
During the social event, individuals with social anxiety can often experience a surge of anxiety that can take the form of a panic attack.
During a panic attack, these symptoms can come on suddenly within minutes causing significant distress. And, as stated above, anxiety about these symptoms can add on to the overall anxiety about the situation.
When you feel a panic attack coming, there are 3 ways of handling it that are backed by science.
