Can you imagine how frustrating it must be to see your friends, classmates or colleagues make new friends everyday or simply interacting and laughing with a new person while you just stand there awkwardly trying your best to fit in but failing miserably, having a tongue and still unable to speak. Well, this is how most of the people suffering from social anxiety feel on a daily basis. Social anxiety is the fear of being judged and evaluated negatively by other people, leading to feelings of inadequacy, inferiority, self-consciousness, embarrassment, humiliation, and depression. It is a common mental health problem which can tamper the routine life of the person suffering from it.
A person with social anxiety disorder usually experience significant emotional distress in:
- being introduced to other people
- being teased or criticized
- being the center of attention
- being watched while doing something
- meeting people in authority
- most social encounters, especially with strangers
- going around the room (or table) in a circle and having to say something,
- interpersonal relationships, whether friendships or romantic
The physiological displays that comes with social anxiety include:
- Intense fear
- Fast beating heart (before and after talking to a new person)
- Heat rush to the face or blushing
- Sweating
- Trembling and muscle twitches
In today’s world, be it any field or job, apt communication skills are required and the prospect of meeting new people everyday is inevitable. In such cases, a person with social anxiety finds it very difficult to fit in or simply survive. They are well aware of the irrationality of their fears but simply can’t do anything to avoid it. The inability to talk to people freely without the fear of being judged or humiliated or to simply speak to a person without having heat rush to your face and your heart beating a mile per hour can be really frustrating. This frustration causes some people to completely shut themselves off and avoid meeting people. In extreme cases, it can lead to depression.
People with social anxiety also find it difficult to interact with a person of opposite sex. Here the fear of getting humiliated or embarrassed is the prime concern. So they find it difficult to get into any kind of relationship even if they want to. A person with social anxiety often finds it difficult to share anything with their partner. This can cause turbulence in their relationship.
Stage fright, also known as performative disorder, is also a communication-based form of anxiety. In simple words, it is the fear of addressing a, or speaking in front of a group of people. Stage fright is commonly diagnosed with social anxiety disorder. The symptoms might be different but the physiological displays are usually the same including accelerated heartbeat and breathing, shivers and trembles, etc, while speaking in front of an audience. People with extreme cases of stage fright find it difficult to even speak in front of 2-4 people.
This fear of public speaking holds back a lot of potential good speakers. For a student with social anxiety and stage fright, asking questions or even doubts from teachers in front of the whole class becomes nearly impossible. A lot of good thoughts get buried in the minds of people suffering with this issue. It greatly damages the person’s self-esteem.
People often don’t realize how serious this problem is. It is very important for people to be informed about it. People should be able to identify the symptoms if their friends or any person around them has social anxiety and try to make them comfortable rather than letting them suffer in silence. Loud thoughts inside the brain of a silent person can eat up their minds if not spewed out.