Jun 27 2008

What Is Social Anxiety Disorder

Published at 7:25 am under Anxiety Center

Social anxiety disorder, or SAD for short, is used to describe an anxiety disorder that causes you to fear being around other people, and causes constant anxiety and stress over what other people will think of you. People affected with social anxiety disorder will actually make themselves be physically sick worrying about meeting and interacting with people in their daily life. People who have social anxiety disorder have tremendous fear of being in situations that put them in the spotlight, such as, public speaking, job interviews, making new friends, or going to a public bathroom. They feel as though they are under constant scrutiny from their peers, and fear that they will always be found lacking, even though they know in their mind that this is not the case. The sad thing is that very few people that suffer from social anxiety disorder actually know what is wrong with them. They know that something is not quite as it should be, but have no idea what, or how to correct the problem.

Like many anxiety disorders, social anxiety disorder is more frequently found in women than in men, and usually begins during adolescence. There has been some research to suggest that the condition can be genetically linked and passed down to future generations. Considering that on average, one out of every eight people in America suffer from social anxiety disorder, think of how many more people there are that havent been diagnosed yet. It obviously is a widespread and serious problem.

Dont misinterpret common nervousness when you are involved in a public event, such as giving a speech, to mean that you have social anxiety disorder. Chances are that once your speech is over, you will forget all about that nervousness you felt before you went on stage. The difference is that people who have social anxiety disorder constantly live in fear of those situations. It has such an impact on their lives that many dont graduate from high school, they arent able to function on a public job, and avoid marriage, or becoming a parent. They miss out on many of lifes main events because they are too scared to face them.

As soon as you start to realize you have a problem, you should talk with your medical provider to seek further advice and treatment. Social anxiety disorder left untreated can cause severe emotional damage, so it is important to get on the road to recovery as soon as possible. Many turn to alcohol and drugs to ease the emotional problems caused by social anxiety disorder, but that often leads to other health problems, not to mention the problems that drug or alcohol dependency can cause you both physically and financially. There are medicines currently being used to treat social anxiety disorder, that can lessen the symptoms, but there are other treatment options that you may want to consider first. You will feel much more confident facing the world once you begin your treatment, and will be able to develop friendships, and do all of the things you were unable to do before. You will no longer have to live in constant fear of public scrutiny.

One alternative therapy for social anxiety disorder that has helped some patients is called Cognitive behavioral therapy. You basically talk out your fears with a certified therapist, who can teach you how to handle situations that cause you to feel anxiety. You learn how to handle your fear of interactions with other people, and how to get over that constant feeling of public scrutiny. You eventually will be put in a number of different situations, and taught how to change the way you think and feel so that you can handle your fear of them better, helping you learn to modify your actions to help control your social anxiety disorder. Once you learn the specific situations that cause you anxiety, and what you can do to better deal with them, you will be much more confident when facing them in the future.

Another part of this therapy will teach how to behave during social interactions. You will learn how to make eye contact during conversations, how to speak so that you gain attention, and how to accept and respond to others criticism of you. At first, you will do all of these new things with your therapist, then as you gain more confidence, in your day to day interactions with others. Learning social etiquette, and how to handle different situations can help ease the symptoms of social anxiety disorder, making it much easier to deal with on a day to day basis.

Dont feel ashamed if you have been diagnosed with social anxiety disorder. Know that there are millions of people that also have it, and that you can receive treatment, and learn how to handle your fears. You can have a normal life, with a marriage, and family, a good job, whatever you wish, once you learn how to get a handle on your social anxiety disorder.

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