Social Anxiety Disorder Symptoms & Treatments

An example of a normal social fear - public speaking - would be the engineer who has to make a presentation to a budgeting committee to justify his project and get it funded. Of course, he'd be concerned that his presentation might not be good enough to convince them or that he might miss making a point that proves crucial. Another example is "approach anxiety" where a person - man or woman - is afraid of approaching an attractive member of the opposite sex and starting a conversation.

For the person with normal shyness or self-consciousness, these situations don't interfere with his or her life; the fear will come up in the moment and be gone immediately after the situation is over. However, if you have an intense fear of any type of social situation, so intense that you become anxious just thinking about it in advance or go to great lengths to avoid it, you may have social anxiety disorder (or social phobia). 

Social Anxiety Disorder Triggers

The following is a partial list of situations that can trigger undue stress in people with social anxiety disorder. Some may sound silly to you, while others might sound all too familiar:

• Meeting new people
• Making small talk
• Public speaking
• Being teased or criticized
• Eating or drinking in a public place
• Talking to someone in a position of authority, like a boss
• Being watched while doing something
• Meeting a member of the opposite sex or going on a date
• Making phone calls
• Attending a party or other social gathering
• Speaking up at a meeting
• Being the center of attention
• Being called on in a class or a meeting

All of the above involve either being in contact with someone you don't know or being in a position where you assume you're going to be judged or evaluated by someone - one person or many.

Social Anxiety Disorder Symptoms

There are two types of symptoms of social anxiety or phobia: psychological and physical.

Psychological symptoms include:

• Avoidance of social situations to the point it disrupts your life or limits your activities
• Intense worry well in advance of an upcoming social event
• Fear that others will notice you're nervous
• Fear that you'll embarrass yourself
• Excessive fear of being judged by other people, especially if you don't know them well
• Extreme shyness and self-consciousness in normal, routine social encounters

Physical symptoms include: 

The physical symptoms of social anxiety disorder are some of those  that a person with any type of anxiety disorder will experience (see Anxiety Disorders Symptoms for a complete list).

• Sweaty palms
• Tightness in the chest
• Racing heart
• Dry mouth, especially in public speaking situations
• Feeling dizzy or faint
• Nausea
• Shaking, twitching or tremors
• Shaky voice
• Blushing

Is Social Anxiety Disorder The Same As Anxiety Disorder?

While many people who suffer from other anxiety disorders include social phobia in their list of problems, there are also many sufferers of social anxiety disorder who have no other anxiety issues. These are mostly people who were shy and lacking in confidence growing up. They may have low self-esteem, thinking negatively of themselves and fear everyone else will see them the same way. The fact is, because of their negative thinking, they're also selling others short in assuming everyone is going to be judging them as harshly as they judge themselves.

As mentioned earlier, typical symptoms of social anxiety disorder will also appear on a list of anxiety disorder symptoms but in fact, they are easily the mildest of the bunch. And, they usually go away as soon as the event causing them is over. People with other forms of anxiety disorder should be so lucky! For example, a person who suffers with panic attacks never knows when one will hit - it could could come out of the blue in the quietest of times.

What Are Effective Social Anxiety Disorder Treatments?

If you find social anxiety is only one piece of your anxiety puzzle - if you suffer from other forms of anxiety - you may want to read Treating Anxiety Disorder for information on treating all types of anxiety disorder. On the other hand, if you find that social phobia is your only issue, read on.

Before discussing some simple but effective strategies for overcoming various social anxiety issues, I'd like to point out the obvious and go from there: It's all in your head. That's right, any social phobia, whether it's a fear of public speaking, attending social events, meeting new people, job interviews or approaching a member of the opposite sex, comes from your unconscious thinking - thinking you developed long ago. As mentioned earlier, it begins with self esteem issues (lack of self-confidence) and layers on negative thinking about yourself and others. You ASSUME that almost everyone is going to be judging you as harshly as you judge yourself. Well, they're not!

A wise man said to me, "We wouldn't worry so much what other people think of us if we only realized how little they think of us." They're not spending their time and energy judging us and looking for our flaws when we talk. The truth is, they're more likely worrying about what we think of THEM. And they're probably listening to what we say, genuinely interested in our words. ALWAYS keep this in mind when you're faced with a social situation that makes you uncomfortable.

Now, on to some effective strategies.....

Fear of Public Speaking

If you find yourself in the position of having to make some sort of presentation or speak up in a meeting, say this to yourself: "These people are not here to judge me or laugh at me so there's no reason for me to feel embarrassed. What I say has value and they want to hear it. If I make a little mistake, it's okay, they don't mind, they're all human just like me." And if you DO make some small blunder, make a little joke out of it, do an Elmer Fudd impersonation: "buddu-buddu-buddu" and laugh at yourself, then if others chuckle, they're not laughing AT you, they're laughing WITH you. What a difference!

Another extremely effective tool for getting over your fear of public speaking is to find and join a local chapter of Toastmasters International.

Fear of Social Events

Do you find yourself afraid to go to social events like parties? You're not alone. And my suggestion is, don't BE alone. Enlist the help of a trusted friend and have that friend accompany you. Have your friend lead you into conversations by introducing you along with him/herself. In these introductions, be the first to hold out your hand - it gives you automatic authority and social value in the minds of those you meet. And try to make eye contact as you shake a person's hand, even if it's only brief. It makes a good first impression and hides the fact that you're shy.

Keep in mind that in a situation like this your non-verbal communication, especially your body language, gives off signals and if you appear afraid others will perceive you that way and stay away from you; it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Fear of Meeting New People

A good, tried and true strategy for this problem is to start small and make contact with people whose job it is to talk to you. Store clerks, receptionists, bank tellers. Just a simple greeting like "Hi! How's your day going?" will often get you a smile and a conversation. More often than not, they're going to say something like this to you, so just try to beat them to it. 

Once you've made it somewhat of a habit doing the above, you'll find yourself gaining confidence and it's time to start conversations with those around you, like the person behind you in line at the grocery store. My personal favorite is to make some funny comment about the tabloids that are always on display in front of you. Notice a magazine with one article on weight loss and another on cooking sinfully rich desserts right under it on the same cover. You've seen these. Point out the silliness of it and see if the other person doesn't agree and laugh with you.

Confidence builds on itself and eventually, you should feel much more comfortable talking to people you don't know.

Approach Anxiety With Members of the Opposite Sex

Remember that almost everyone likes to be approached and talked to. For men, this is often the biggest hurdle, convincing themselves that women normally don't reject a man just for saying hello. 

For a woman, there's also the factor of thinking it's the man's job so it's okay for her to just be there and expect to be approached. But, considering how many men are afraid to approach her, she's probably missing out on a lot of good opportunities. I read about a report once that said a majority of successful relationships begin with the woman approaching the man. So if you're a woman who's afraid to approach men, think of the advantages of getting over it.

For the most part, the same strategies for overcoming fear of social events and meeting new people, outlined above, will also work well with fear of approaching. The most important thing is building confidence.

Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life

Since ALL social anxiety and phobia begins with a lack of self confidence, you can overcome the problems by gaining confidence in yourself. If you were confident that people would accept, respect and like you, you would have no anxiety about meeting them, talking to a group or even going into a job interview. 

As you build confidence in social encounters, by using the simple exercises outlined above or any other methods, the way you think about yourself will change. You'll learn that others aren't there to judge you, that they accept you for who and what you are. 

The next step in becoming comfortable in all social situations is changing your self talk and learning to respect and love yourself as you are. Boost your self-esteem. The fastest and easiest way to do this is with a subliminal program that will guide your subconscious mind to seeing yourself in a whole new light. Subliminal audio is a very powerful tool for changing faulty programming in your mind; I've used them for a few years and realized massive changes in my life. What I've found makes them especially effective is playing one on a loop or repeat as I sleep - it bombards my sub-conscious with positive messages when my conscious mind is inactive.

My recommendation is Self-Esteem Booster from Subliminal CDs.com. With this program you'll begin to feel good about yourself and how others see you. I suggest the MP3 download, especially if you have the ability to burn your own CD - it's instant and less expensive.

Now, you might be wondering why I put these simple but necessary steps in the order I did. Can't you just use the subliminal track and magically overcome your social phobia? Actually, no. It's going to take some effort to become comfortable socially and you need to be willing to put some effort into it. If you're not prepared to work at it, then you may as well save your money and not buy the subliminal. But if you make an effort and start to see little changes in your ability to meet new people and carry yourself in social situations, you'll want more of it. THAT will increase the power of the subliminal audio and have you listening to it more often.

To your recovery,

Owen
owen@helpwithanxietydisorder.com 

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