|
Social Anxiety Disorder
Social
anxiety is the fear of social situations and the interaction
with other people that can automatically bring on feelings of
self-consciousness, judgment, evaluation, and inferiority.
Put
another way, social anxiety is the fear and anxiety of being
judged and evaluated negatively by other people, leading to
feelings of inadequacy, embarrassment, humiliation, and
depression.
If
a person usually becomes anxious in social situations, but
seems fine when they are alone, then "social
anxiety" may be the problem.
Social
anxiety disorder (formerly termed "social phobia")
is a much more common problem than past estimates have led us
to believe. Millions of people all over the world suffer
from this devastating and traumatic problem every day, either
from a specific social anxiety or from a more generalized
social anxiety.
In
the United States, epidemiological studies have recently
pegged social anxiety disorder as the third largest
psychological disorder in the country, after depression and
alcoholism. It is estimated that 7-8% of the population
suffers from some form of social anxiety at the present time.
The lifetime prevalence rate for developing social anxiety
disorder is 13-14%.
Symptoms of
Social Anxiety
|
