Social Phobia: The Realities of a Not So Real Social Anxiety
One of the most common phobias is centered on social anxiety. Social anxiety is the fear of people or social situations. While the number of people with this type of phobia is growing, social anxiety remains one of the most under reported phobias of all the long list of anxiety related fears.
Social anxiety or social phobia was once a rare condition. People who felt higher levels of social anxiety in normal every day situations simply removed themselves from the day to day activities that raised their levels of social anxiety. This lead to an increased number of agoraphobics (people who are afraid of leaving their homes for fear of being trapped without escape). As the diagnosis for social anxiety disorders became more prevalent, the condition was studied and proper treatments were set by doctors in the fields associated with social anxiety.
To better understand social anxiety, one must look at the condition with an open mind. Social anxiety can be rooted in any of a million previous conditions, but nearly all people who suffer from social anxiety react in the same manner to the triggers of the condition. The most common symptoms of social anxiety are loss of breath, racing heart rate, feeling of dizziness and an intense need to remove themselves from the current situation.
Social anxiety can rear its head in a wealth of different situations and not all of these situations are face to face social in nature. A person may have a fear of calling the telephone company because their question would be a burden on the person answering the phone. Another sufferer of social anxiety may refrain from confrontation for the fear of making someone mad at them.
The most recognized forms of social anxiety are related to social situations. People who are afraid of large crowds, afraid to walk into a grocery store alone for fear of everyone staring at them. These are the social anxiety disorders that many people think of when social anxiety is brought up in conversation.
Treatment for social anxiety is most often comprised of a combination treatment of medication and psychotherapy. There are few patients who suffer from the worst cases of social anxiety that will be able to live their day to day lives without the help of a medical physician and those who do, find themselves suffering from agoraphobia very quickly.
The milder cases of social anxiety are often left unreported, making this type of anxiety disorder a larger problem than any study can predict. The stigmas surrounding social anxiety are still very real and people would often rather suffer alone with the effects of social anxiety than have their friends, family and doctors know of their condition.