Social anxiety disorder symptoms and how to recognize them

Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is a debilitating mental illness that afflicts thousands of people in the United States. It can rob a person of all their joy in life. Imagine that as an adult you are unable to -

• Attend social functions for fear of the large numbers of people who will be watching you and judging you
• Go to school or work because you're afraid to be embarrassed and humiliated
• Go grocery shopping during the day because of the number of people who will be there

All of those are symptoms of Social Anxiety Disorder in adults. In children it manifests in ways such as-

• Fear of being embarrassed in front of other children
  
• Frequent crying, tantrums, social ineptness particularly around strangers
• Refusing to admit to the fears they have
• The fear is continuous in any given social situation for more than 6+ months

Social Anxiety Disorder often causes people to purposely underachieve in order to avoid the attention that doing their best might cause if someone decided to recognize them for their efforts. Far fewer friends is also a common impact of SAD.

It is often refered to as Social Phobia and impacts behavioral, cognitive, and psychological aspects of a person who is dealing with the illness.

Behavioral:

SAD is far and away beyond the typical shyness that everyone experiences from time to time. It is a condition that makes it nearly impossible for a person to function in society on a daily basis. For example instead of going grocery shopping a person who presents with SAD symptoms may be inclined to have their food delivered. Groups, parties, public speaking and other things of that nature will horrify someone suffering with SAD.

Physical:

Like other mental illnesses SAD will often show up through physical afflictions. Unexplained hives, vomiting, shaking, hot/cold flashes are all possible warning signs. Another indicator is having to make a phone call. Most sufferers of SAD are more comfortable online than not, but even that can pose challenges which may result in a physical manifestation of the disease.

Cognitive:

Social phobics will often over analyze every word and event that has played out in any situation they have been in. They could be obsessing over it several days, even weeks after the event took place. A person with Social Anxiety Disorder will often try to play out every possible scenario in their mind and exactly what they would do/say in any given situation. For instance a social phobic who is going on a date might spend several days planning each and every word of the conversation and dinner.

Help is available

Social Anxiety Disorder is a silent killer that robs you of your self-worth. You should not endure it alone, but no one is going to force you to get help.

The first step is to get a doctor's diagnosis. Even if you have all the symptoms of SAD you still need to have a competent medical professional make an official determination.

Once that has happened follow your doctors instructions about getting treatment. See what works for you and what doesn't. Some people respond well to therapy, some to medication, some to both, and there are even some who don't respond to either and new methods of treatment must be researched.

Treatment of Social Anxiety Disorder

The main components of treatment are medicinal and psychological counseling to help reduce anxiety, and depression. Not everyone with anxiety disorder requires both. Often if it's just one or two issues that makes a person anxious it can be treated with therapy sessions. For example public speaking. On the other hand if it is multiple ongoing situations that cause anxiety medication is often required to put things back into balance.