Social Anxiety Disorder
Social Anxiety Disorder that Starts in Childhood
Social anxiety disorders, which are also known as social
phobias, may be chronic by nature and result in the disability
which tends to leave the patient to suffer in silence as those
people surrounding them fail to understand the cause of the
action.
A victim of social anxiety disorder cannot handle everyday
situations because of the overwhelming anxiety and self consciousness
he or she feels.
The National Institute of Mental Health (NMH) reveals the
following statistics concerning social anxiety disorders in
the United States. It is believed that 5.3 million adult Americans
or supposedly 3.7 per cent of the total population suffer
from social anxiety disorders and that this number is twice
as common among the women as compared with their male counterparts.
Social anxiety disorder usually begins during childhood or
when the patient is in the adolescent years and mostly does
not occur after a person passes 25.
When such anxiety becomes very chronic the patient may even
attempt suicide. The feelings that the patient experiences
are so intense that it can get out of control, though these
vary from person to person and different people often have
different anxieties about their social situations.
Extreme Fears Regarding Social Situations
Generally, victim of social anxiety disorder tend to have
excessive fear that everybody seems to be focusing their attention
on him or her. They may also fear that they will be error-prone
and everybody will know about the mistakes that he or she
makes. The patient may often feel inadequate in that he or
she feels that others are much more capable than him or may
feel that others are passing judgments about them. He also
constantly fears that he would end up embarrassing himself
in front of others.
When a situation arises that causes the patient to feel extreme
anxiety it may lead to the patient feeling nauseous, trembling,
heart keeps pounding, blushing, sweating and also stammering.
There have been known cases where the anxiety manifests itself
into a panic attack and such symptoms only end up causing
the patient further embarrassment.
A person who suffers from social anxiety disorder may only
feel comfortable with close friends and other family members,
while some only fear certain social situations. There are
also cases when the patient fail to social normally with persons
in authoritative positions and public speaking is another
social fear as too are using public restrooms, eating out,
using the telephone as well as writing in front of others.
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