Social Anxiety - Research Paper Example

? Social Anxiety Social Anxiety Introduction Social anxiety is a term used to refer to the anxious behavior exhibited by an individual due to his/her interaction with social environment. An individual is said to be experiencing social anxiety disorder when that individual experiences problems due to social anxiety. Social phobia is a term used to denote the continuous anxious behavior of an individual due to his exchanges with the social environment. Individuals tend to use the word extreme shyness in replacement of the word social phobia, but the term social phobia does not only refer to shyness. People experiencing from social phobia are not afraid of fear, rather they are afraid of what people think about them and how people perceive them. This fear is mostly associated with the negative perception or the belief that people perceive negatively about the person being evaluated. Due to this fear, individuals believe that they are going to be negatively assessed by others, will not be acceptable by others, will be bullied and people might disapprove them. Due to these perceptions, an individual may face the problem of social anxiety. Individuals living in US aging between 18 and 54 are most commonly affected by this disorder, around 3.7% of the total population which accounts for 5.3 million Americans are said to be experiencing this disease (Kahn, 2001, p.51). Twice the number of women are said to be effected by this disorder as compared to men but higher number of men seek assistance to solve this issue (Kahn, 2001, p.51). Mostly an individual is affected by this disease during childhood; individuals who cross the age of 25 have less chances of developing this disorder. Social anxiety is one of the top most common forms of disorders experienced by US. Body During the 1980s, social anxiety was realized as a mental disposition by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder; this realization took place much later than other forms of mental issues (Kearney, 2005, p.11). Heavy amount of research and study has not focused on this disease but quite a lot of physicians and researchers are working towards this social and mental problem. Researchers have been able to identify two forms of social phobia, though it is unclear whether both these problems are similar or distinct. The first kind of social phobia is one in which people are afraid of conducting one of the several forms of social actions such as speaking in front of the public and working or eating while around people. The second division of social phobia is recognized as generalized social phobia, people experiencing this form of social phobia are afraid of conducting all sorts of social activities (Kearney, 2005, p.12). Media has paid attention to social phobia and has stated that pharmaceutical companies are trying to sell medication that is used to solve the issue of shyness and they believe that shyness is not a medical condition (Gambrill, 2012, p.67). The issue of pharmaceutical companies operating in an unethical way to make profits should not be mixed with the issue of social phobia as everyday several individuals throughout the world along with US experience this metal disorder and are not able to complete their social obligations. An individual should not be labeled as someone who is experiencing any disease if they are going through emotional changes that are important for their life. But proper importance needs to be assigned to someone who is actually experiencing certain mental issues. Social phobia or social anxiety itself is a label given to those who are actually suffering from these issues and these labeling aids them in obtaining help from physicians and gain support from others who are experiencing the same challenge. Experiencing social anxiety is not a huge issue, thus others need to accept such people and provide support to them and people suffering from this disorder want to alter the way they are living their lives. It is a myth that socially anxious people do not prefer to be social or are against being social (Kosslyn, 2006, p.667). People suffering from this disastrous disorder are never against socialization and have higher degree of desire to gain social recognition and acceptability. The main factor that restricts them from getting along with people is the uncomfortable feeling of being negatively judged by others. Normal individuals or individuals who do not experience such issues think of social anxious individuals as anti social without understanding their real problem. People experiencing social phobia become more stressed out as they experience a conflict between wanting to be social and not being able to socialize due to their fears. These individuals even say that they have very few friends throughout their lives and have rarely indulged in an intimate relationship (Antony, 2008, p.5). These problems are not only reported by children and teenagers, similar problem are reported by adults suffering from social anxiety even if these individuals are quite appealing to others. Socially anxious people even report feelings of loneliness and depression and emptiness because of their inability to complete their social needs. These individuals even refrain from obtaining assistance and share a common believe of experiencing the issue alone. Shyness and shy behavior has been associated with social anxiety, this is because people suffering from social anxiety are found to exhibit high degree of shyness (Hofmann, 2010, p.68). Shyness is a behavior that individuals even exhibit during the childhood. It is not clear that shyness is a sort of social anxious behavior as different researchers have defined shyness differently. Individuals who are shy are said to be highly afraid, but social anxious people have the ability to live a life while being active in the society along with experiencing social anxiety. Socially anxious individuals have a way to cope with their situation due to which they remain distant from other people; this feature of social anxiety detaches it from shyness. Even adults are shy but their episode of shyness does not last for a longer period of time and they indulge in social activities as soon as those episodes pass away and they feel comfortable. The problem with socially anxious people is that they experience prolonged or never ending periods of fear (Hofmann, 2010, p.70). Shyness can be regarded as one of the features or outcomes of social anxiety but shyness can never be regarded as social anxiety. Socially anxious people especially those who experience fear conducting all sorts of social activities are almost afraid of every individual. Every socially anxious individual finds comfort in another individual but these individuals are quite few in their lives (Antony, 2008, p.47). Socially anxious individuals are so comfortable with these individuals that they share every particular thought or moment of their lives with them. These individuals mostly include those with whom socially anxious people are quite close such as friends and family members. It is reported that the level of anxiety of socially anxious individual’s increases when they confront people who are high in confidence and are considered as extroverts and socially anxious patients might find comfort in connecting with those who are perceived by the patients as having low confidence. Socially anxious people perceive that they will gain higher acceptability with those who share similar disorder because they understand their problems as they share similar problems. The debate over whether this phobia is in born or people develop this phobia as they move ahead and interact with their environment. Research states that there are certain factors that a person may have inborn and might develop the disposition of social anxiety, but this is not true for all those individuals who have similar factors (Hope, 2006, p.64). Research further states that these factors can not be considered as causes of social anxiety, but these factors may pose a higher risk for an individual to become socially anxious. It is common symptom that socially anxious individuals are quite sensitive in nature, but while treatment physicians have to make sure whether they have become sensitive due to their ill health or sensitiveness have been the cause of their mental disorder (Leary, 1995, 105). Children may even develop anxiety because of their parents if their parents exhibit anxious behavior even if they are not suffering from social anxiety. Children even become vulnerable to society and social activities if at an early age parents or significant others try to be overwhelmingly protective of them. Socially anxious individuals even report that they have been badly subjected to bullying and they have experienced abuse at an early stage in their lives (Leary, 1995, 105). This does not mean that a child have been a victim of abuse, even children who have observed or somehow interacted with incidence of abuse at an early age experience social anxiety at a later age. Children who have experienced abuse exhibit abusive behavior in later years of their lives due to which people label them negatively and due to the fear of being continuously labeled negatively can become a cause of social anxiety. Social anxiety does not only lead to excessive fear, it even affects the physical existence of an individual. Anxiety is even referred to as defensive feedback to a situation that can lead to hurt or death, therefore anxiety can help an individual save himself from danger. The anxious feeling within an individual triggers and stops an individual from getting into an act which might harm him (Leary, 1995, p.131). Although this feature of anxiety is quite positive for the wellbeing of an individual, but people living in 21st century can not afford this feeling because today’s environment requires an individual to be more socially active and care less about being physically attacked. When an individual experiences social anxiety, he fears that he is going to be harmed, this leads to activation of the sympathetic nervous system which either makes the body ready to fight the expected risk or avoid the situation. Due to activation of sympathetic nervous system, the blood within an individual’s digestive system is transferred to the muscles which lead to increase in tension of the muscles. This results in several side effects such as muscular pain, trembling, jerking, twitching, and dryness of mouth as well as throat and digestive problems. If the body of a socially anxious patient does not respond in this way, then the body temperature may rise and produce sweat to relax the body temperature. Conclusion Research on the topic of social anxiety is insufficient but social anxiety is referred to the fear that individuals have of being labeled as negative or being perceived negatively by others. Due to this fear, an individual experiences physical, mental as well as social issues. Social anxiety is developed at an early age due to several reasons which might include inherited anxiety, abuse and biological factors. References Antony, M. M., Swinson, R. P., & Antony, M. M. (2008). The shyness & social anxiety workbook: Proven, step-by-step techniques for overcoming your fear. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications. Gambrill, E. D. (2012). Propaganda in the helping professions. New York: Oxford University Press. Hofmann, S. G., & DiBartolo, P. M. (2010). Social anxiety: Clinical, developmental, and social perspectives. Amsterdam: Academic Press/Elsevier. Hope, D. A., Heimberg, R. G., & Turk, C. L. (2006). Managing social anxiety: A cognitive-behavioral therapy approach. New York: Oxford University Press. Kahn, A. P., & Fawcett, J. (2001). Encyclopedia of mental health. New York: Facts on File. Kearney, C. A. (2005). Social anxiety and social phobia in youth: Characteristics, assessment, and psychological treatment. New York: Springer. Kosslyn, S. M., & Rosenberg, R. S. (2006). Psychology in context. Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon. Leary, M. R., & Kowalski, R. M. (1995). Social anxiety. New York: Guilford Press. Read More