Many of us might feel nervous at certain important presentations, public speaking or social situations. You might fear being judged, observed or having said something embarrassing due to nervousness. But if you face such symptoms all the time during all social situations, it is time to take a social anxiety test. Social Anxiety or social phobia is a medical condition that is characterized by fear and anxiety during social situations.
Around 12 % of Americans experience social anxiety disorder once in their lives. Research also reveals that females tend to suffer more from SAD as compared to men. Social Anxiety Disorder is the third most common mental health condition after substance abuse and depression.
What is Social Anxiety Disorder?
Social anxiety disorder or social phobia is a persistent fear of social situations where embarrassment may occur and the fear or anxiety is out of proportion to the actual threat posed by the social situation as determined by the person’s cultural norms. Usually, such situations include strangers, speaking in meetings or in groups where you do not know what people might judge or think, finding it difficult to start conversations, public speaking or performance, seen or observed in public during anything. If forced to attend such situations, they experience physical, social or occupational symptoms. Avoiding such a situation further causes feelings of loneliness, guilt or shame and may further cause distress and depression.
While some people might face anxiety or nervousness during one or two of such situations, people with Social Anxiety Disorder always face extreme implications when facing any social situation.
Signs and Symptoms Of Social Anxiety
Physical Symptoms:
- Stomach aches or other muscle aches
- Vomiting sensation
- Hot flashes or sweating in multiple body parts
- Difficulty in breathing
- Increase heart rate
- Shaking or trembling (body or voice)
- Dizziness
Emotional Symptoms:
- Constantly worrying about daily social situations such as talking on phone, meeting strangers at work, starting conversations etc.
- Stressed out days or months ahead of an upcoming social event.
- Recurring fear of being observed, judged or watched.
- Overthinking negatively of any social interaction.
- Fear that you will embarrass yourself in front of others.
- Fear of your nervousness to be noticed by others.
- Loneliness due to rejecting all social opportunities.
Social Symptoms:
- Reluctance towards attending any social event to the point of anxiety.
- Trying to be as invisible as possible during a social interaction or meeting including being, hiding at the back etc.
- Take the support of alcohol or substance to cope with social anxiety.
- Avoiding any situation that would make you a center of attention.
- You may also start developing concerns such as obesity, body imaging or other physical characteristics.
Social Anxiety Test
If you associate yourself with some or all of the above symptoms, it is time to take the Social Anxiety Test here.
Make sure to answer all the questions as honestly and as strongly as possible to yield proper results. While mild or moderate levels of anxiety can be worked upon with self care activities, if you have an extreme level of Social Anxiety Disorder, seek a healthcare professional immediately.
Ways to Overcome Social Anxiety
Self Care
You can learn to manage social anxiety disorder using some home remedies or self care. These can also be recommended to be practiced along with treatments such as therapy and medication. You can also reach out to a healthcare provider in case you want to get your condition diagnosed.
1. Challenge Your Thought Process:
When you’re suffering from social anxiety disorder, you might catch yourself doing negative self-talk quite often. Challenging your mindset will help you cope with the situation. Start with trying to look into your strengths. What is it that you do well? Are you able to manage such situations better than before? Appreciate yourself for that. You may also start with writing down 1-2 positive affirmations everyday. Affirmations help your brain to look at the positive aspects of your life rather than putting you down. Another thing you can do is question your negative self-talk. The next time your brain tells you ‘you cannot go to this social event’, ask yourself ‘why’ or ‘what is the worst that could happen?’. Challenging your current mindset will help you look beyond what you always thought was the only way to do.
Read more on affirmations here: https://blissedmenproject.com/daily-positive-affirmations-for-anxiety-relief/
2. Learn to Control your Physical Symptoms:
For people who face extreme symptoms of SAD such as panic attacks, irregular breathing or increased heart rate are quite common. Reach out to healthcare professionals and learn ways to work on your breathing or calm your panic attacks. When you know how to control them, they will not scare you anymore. They might even reduce with time.
3. Face your Fears gradually:
Remember, it is okay to fear social situations as long as you do not let fears control your life. Do not miss a good opportunity just because you are too scared to be there. Instead work at it slowly. If you feel being alone at a social gathering makes you anxious, start by taking someone along and still attend that event. You will be able to talk to people without feeling like a sole target of everything. When you have challenged your existing mindset, it is time to prove it wrong. ‘I can go to that social event and talk to a bunch of people.’ ‘There is nothing worse that happened after attending that meeting.’ ‘I only feel better after deciding to go instead of cancelling on them.’
4. Recharge Yourself frequently:
When you face your fears, it is possible that you tire yourself after meeting strangers. Make sure to recharge frequently to stand back again. You can use a day every week to yourself or your closed ones. Read a book, watch something or just sit back and relax so as to get ready to face your fears back again.
5. Take Care of Yourself:
If you are more prone to anxiety, you should create a lifestyle that reduces anxiety for you. Dedicate your time everyday to look after yourself mentally as well as physically. Get enough sleep, set some time for meditation and exercise, make sure to eat more nutritional food, stay hydrated and stay away from alcohol, smoking or drugs. When you take care of yourself, your body takes care of you.
Here are Foods that boost your mental health : https://blissedmenproject.com/7-best-foods-for-anxiety-and-depression/
6. Keep a Journal:
Journaling can help you understand your feelings better and self analyze ways to tackle them using your own past experience. Set aside 5-10 minutes everyday to write about how you feel. There are various different methods and prompts to journal. Choose your own way and stay consistent.
Here are Journaling Prompts to get you started: https://blissedmenproject.com/how-to-start-journaling-journaling-prompts-for-mental-health/
Medications
There are three different kinds of medications prescribed to a person suffering from social anxiety disorder. These include Antidepressants, Beta-blockers and anti-anxiety medications such as benzodiazepines. Reach out to healthcare professionals for a proper prescription.
Psychotherapy
Among all treatments, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has been known to work best for social anxiety disorder. It is the process of working on your thoughts that affect your feelings and are directly linked to your behaviors. Under CBT, people suffering from Social anxiety disorder learn to challenge their negative thoughts, work upon controlling their physical symptoms and ultimately face the situations that they otherwise fear.
Usually people mix social anxiety with shyness or being an introvert. However, they are very different from each other. To find out if your social anxiety is a medical condition or not depends upon the frequency of its occurrence and the degree to which it affects your normal life. A thing to be noted is that Social Anxiety Develop might develop during your childhood and may go undiagnosed because it has become part of your personality. However, this does not mean that it cannot be treated. You can seek out a healthcare professional and improve your lifestyle at any given point of time.