The Definition of Social Anxiety
Social anxiety disorder is defined as “an anxiety disorder in which a person has an excessive and unreasonable fear of social situations”.
Anxiety is uneasiness when someone is nervous and is sometimes felt with butterflies in their stomach or not feeling too well at the moment. Anxiety happens to everyone at times to a certain extent and is felt in different ways and also dealt with in different ways. Some people find that listening to music helps soothe their brewing anxiety and others distract themselves with a book, by drawling, and more. But anxiety to some people is not just nerves before the first day of school; it is in certain cases something more. Anyone can have anxiety because anxiety is usually known as nerves. Such as the night before a big test or the day of a big horse riding competition but anxiety can take many different forms and may not always be just an every now and then kind of thing.
Anxiety can be known as a mental disorder in some cases and in that case the definition is different. When anxiety is classified as mental disorders there are even more forms that can take up such as social anxiety disorder. Having social anxiety means that one has an irrational fear at unneeded times. An example would be when someone goes to a restaurant and have to check out. Someone with social anxiety may be waiting in line and constantly go over what they are going to say and do, “Okay, I am going to walk up there and ask for the chicken finger meal.
That’s all, you can do this.” Every little interaction is overthought constantly and everything they say is stuck in there head all day as they think of different meanings. People with social anxiety tend to over think and freak out over little things. “I have a presentation in class today and everyone will laugh at me if I mess up or stutter, I have to do this perfectly or I will fail.” Or they may think, “My voice is going to start shaking, what if I humiliate myself?”. “Social anxiety disorder is the third largest psychological disorder in the United States.
Millions of people don’t let anyone know the pain they are enduring, and believe that there is no hope to get better”. There are millions of websites with a set goal to help people with social anxiety be able to live their lives to the fullest but a lot of people are too scared to reach out. Social anxiety is classified as a real disorder but social anxiety can easily be mixed up with other every day traits. Social anxiety is not shyness at all. “A shy person may have social anxiety disorder, and they may not.
A person who meets the diagnosis for social anxiety disorder may be shy, but they can also be very outgoing”. Some people with social anxiety may have the trait of shyness but not all do, some people are very outgoing and hide what is actually going on in their head and no one would ever guess that they had this disorder. Social anxiety is not just anxiety either. Anxiety is an every now and then thing that happens before something big, but social anxiety is a lot bigger and more complex. In conclusion, social anxiety is a complex disorder that branches off of anxiety.
Someone with social anxiety may be shy but most often are not. Shyness and anxiety are often confused with social anxiety when they are two completely opposite ideas. Someone with social anxiety may have negative thoughts towards themselves on a daily basis and is constantly worried about messing up and/or looking stupid in front of their peers. People with social anxiety have a lot of options to get help and live a normal, happy life but are often too shy to ask for help and are left battling their own mind with their thoughts. Lastly, social anxiety is defined as a mental disorder in which they constantly fear of how peers see themselves or what they think of them.
