Social Phobia

Imagine going through your whole life in the constant fear of worrying about the others’ opinion for you, saying only such things which might approve you in the peer group and scared to go out in the public to escape the scrutinizing eyes of the people.

There are people who would rather prefer to stay at home for an endless time period than going out of their homes. Such people give importance to the thoughts of others so much that they tend to react accordingly and forget their natural behavior or attitude. There are people who constantly fear the prying eyes of the people when moving out in a public place.

Do you avoid parties and social get-togethers just because you don’t want to interact with the people? If you experience something like this then you should be careful since you must be gripped with social anxiety disorder. Social phobia or social anxiety disorder is a neurotic disorder where a person may feel uncomfortable to interact more often with people socially. According to a survey, out of the total number of people detected with social anxiety disorder there are just 25% of them who really go ahead for the treatment of the disease.

Social anxiety disorder although appears to be a very harmless looking disorder but actually it is a serious kind of nervous disorder that affects the behavioral pattern of a person to a great extent. Social anxiety disorder is a kind of social phobia in which a person has acute fear of eating, drinking, talking or being watched out in a public place like a gathering. People who suffer from social phobia encounter difficulties when speaking in public, eating and drinking in public, writing in front of others, meeting new people, being the centre of attention, being watched doing something, using the telephone or even when having to speak to authority figures.

It’s quite normal for some people to feel shy in public but if this shyness becomes a cause of concern, reaching to an extreme point then it surely becomes a cause for worry, a reason for medication. Yet shyness and social anxiety disorder are two different things. Shyness is a much generalized feeling of a person where as social anxiety disorder starts surfacing in particular situations like, a person may feel anxious to go and speak in public, some people are anxious to talk over a phone etc. The most important thing is that people who are suffering from social anxiety disorder know that their fears are unreasonable but still they can not overcome their fears.

Many times people who are suffering from social anxiety disorder tend to experience the clinical symptoms of anxiety like sweating, blushing, tense muscles or headaches when they confront their most dreaded social situations, for e.g. while giving a public speech.

People whose conditions have become worse can definitely seek medical help. But the thing is, though social anxiety disorder is a treatable disease, it is not a completely curable disease. Once the disorder is under control cognitive behavioral therapy must be tried by a qualified psychiatrist who can reduce this disorder by his psychological counseling too.

The social phobia should never be left untreated otherwise the sufferer becomes a person of low self esteem, low confidence, emotionally more dependent and financially poor too. So if you know any such person suffering from social anxiety disorder then help that person out by enlightening him on his condition, by providing him proper information about his condition, trying to give him medical care and most importantly make him realize that his condition is not just simply a state but a disease which needs treatment like any other form of disease, and therefore he would surely need the help of medications as well as the psychological counseling of a psychiatrist.

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