Social Anxiety Disorder

A Glimpse of its Symptoms, Causes and Treatment

Social anxiety disorder is all about getting embarrassed and uncomfortable in front of other people due to an uncertain fear, the fear of being judged by the people. This is such a strong phobia that you may encounter it while doing your everyday routine work.

No doubt there is always some nervousness if you are going to deliver a speech in front of public, or meeting with new people, but what happens with people suffering from social anxiety disorder is that they start getting worried and nervous days before such things happen.

People with social anxiety disorder don’t even feel easy doing anything common if someone is watching them. They might get afraid of using a public washroom, or signing a cheque at a departmental store, or in bank, or they even may get afraid of drinking juice or cola at a public place. Some people face such problem only during certain situations or in some specific places, while the majority of them face this problem in all social circumstances. A person actually doesn’t have control most of the time to cover such problems, despite them knowing there is nothing to be afraid of.

Symptoms of social anxiety disorder

Social anxiety disorder has very clear symptoms. For example, the person tends to stay away from people or places, always in a fear of being judged by other people. They start fearing about any social meeting days before it happens, often finding difficulty in making friendships, They feel self-conscious and embarrassed in crowded place and might sometime feel nauseous when meeting with other people. People suffering from social anxiety disorder want to talk with other people, but most of the time they find it very difficult.

Unknown causes

Social anxiety disorder is common in families in some cases, but it is yet to be known why some people don’t have any such feelings while others are seriously disturbed. Researchers are working hard on finding the actual causes that results in social anxiety disorder.

Treatment methods

Commonly, for social anxiety disorder, there are two types of treatments in practice: medication, or counseling with a psychologist. Sometimes both treatment methods are used side by side. It has been observed that not all the treatment methods affect every patient, rather one individual might have a better outcome by using one method, while the other becomes fine by using the other treatment method.

Psychotherapy is considered to be a better treatment for most of the people suffering from social anxiety disorder. In psychotherapy, a person is told how they can come up against negative thoughts and start thinking positive about him. The method of cognitive behavioral therapy uses the idea that the person’s own thoughts and mindset determines how they should react or behave with others, while situations or meeting with people must not have any impact on their behavior.

This type of therapy is mostly used for counseling with people having social anxiety disorder. Sometimes a person is told to practice situations that induce anxiety upon them. This way a confidence is developed in their mind and they start to behave better in meeting others, or while talking to people.

There are several types of medicines that have been manufactured to assist in the treatment of social anxiety disorders. The medicines are referred by a consultant on the basis of the level of social anxiety disorder and the treatment method required.