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What are the stages of social anxiety?
For someone suffering with social anxiety, a forthcoming social event will present three different stages that the sufferer will experience psychologically – the anticipatory phase, exposure to the actual situation itself, and post-event processing. Some of the traumatic events understood to have predictive value for the onset of social anxiety include: Childhood abandonment or neglect. Physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. Bullying. Individuals high in social anxiety, even at non-clinical levels, tend to be painfully self-conscious about public aspects of the self and their social performance (Cartwright-Hatton et al. Most people will never live completely without social anxiety, but rather achieve a balance in which your anxiety does not negatively affect your daily functioning or place limits on what you can achieve. Social anxiety means your fight or flight response is fully charged. You’ll want to take flight – you really will – but hold off for a moment and remind yourself that you have a choice. You can stay and fight. Your anxiety is there to protect you. This fear can affect work, school, and other daily activities. It can even make it hard to make and keep friends. The good news is social anxiety disorder is treatable. Learn more about the symptoms of social anxiety disorder and how to find help.
What is the root cause of social anxiety?
Negative experiences. Children who experience teasing, bullying, rejection, ridicule or humiliation may be more prone to social anxiety disorder. In addition, other negative events in life, such as family conflict, trauma or abuse, may be associated with this disorder. People who are naturally more reserved and those who have experienced trauma like childhood abuse or neglect are more likely to develop the disorder. Additionally, those with a first-degree blood relative who has the disorder are anywhere from two to six times more likely to experience Social Anxiety Disorder. People with social anxiety disorder fear that they will say or do (involuntarily or otherwise) something that they think will be humiliating or embarrassing (such as blushing, sweating, shaking, looking anxious, or appearing boring, stupid or incompetent). Cycle of Low Self-Esteem If you live with social anxiety disorder, you likely have unrealistic social standards and trouble choosing goals that are attainable. 4 For example, you may believe that everyone must like you and that you must never say or do the wrong thing. Both heritable factors and environmental stress factors appear to be responsible for the onset of social anxiety disorder. CONCLUSIONS: Social anxiety disorder should be conceptualized as a chronic neurodevelopmental illness that might represent a fully compensated state in adulthood. Social anxiety is a neurobehavioral trait characterized by fear and reticence in social situations. Twin studies have shown that social anxiety has a heritable basis, shared with neuroticism and extraversion, but genetic studies have yet to demonstrate robust risk variants.