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Social anxiety is not just a feeling of shyness or nervousness before presenting or speaking before a group of people. It is a persistent and debilitating fear of being humiliated, judged, or embarrassing oneself in public. People who experience social anxiety find unremarkable daily life situations such as eating in a public place, talking to customer care executives, making or taking a phone call anxiety provoking. The degree of avoidance of anxiety triggers is what differentiates social anxiety or phobia from shyness. This intense fear interferes with a person’s routine life, including social relationships and occupational performance.
Social anxiety can hamper one’s overall quality of life. To understand it better, we reached out to our expert Vaishali Arora, Clinical Psychologist Lissun, a mental health startup platform.
Symptoms Of Social Anxiety
• It is an irrational fear of social settings.
• Physical symptoms include sweating, palpitations, shaking, and nausea.
• Avoidance of social situations or withdrawn behaviour such as not making eye contact
and not initiating conversations.
• Feeling self-conscious and worrying about humiliating oneself.
• Anticipatory anxiety of social interactions, for example, attending events, delivering presentations, meeting new people, etc.
Causes Of Social Anxiety
• Genetic predisposition, social anxiety can run in families.
• Certain personality traits such as inhibition, interpersonal sensitivity, perfectionism, and negative thinking styles make a person more vulnerable to anxiety.
• Negative experiences such as childhood bullying, harassment and abuse.
• Family influence through harsh critical remarks, controlling or overprotective parenting
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Treatment Of Social Anxiety
The treatment of social anxiety usually uses a multimodal approach. Psychotropic medications
like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), benzodiazepines, and other anti-anxiety
medications can be used to manage the symptoms and provide immediate relief. Medicines are
usually combined with psychotherapy for an effective treatment.
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Psychotherapy can help an individual to identify maladaptive thinking patterns and challenge
them. “Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is one of the most researched forms of therapy
treatment. Additionally, exposure therapy under professional guidance can be done to gradually
and safely overcome the fear of social situations. Other therapy techniques include relaxation
and mindfulness practices to help a person face up and stay grounded in social situations,” said Arora.
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