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Overcoming Social Anxiety
Social Anxiety Online Forums - How They Alleviate Social Phobia
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 (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 of their lives, either from a specific social phobia or from a more generalized social phobia. In the United States, epidemiological studies have recently pegged social anxiety disorder as the third largest psychological disorder in the country.
A specific social phobia would be the fear of speaking in front of groups, whereas generalized social anxiety indicates that the person is anxious, nervous, and uncomfortable in almost all (or the majority of) social situations.
People with social anxiety disorder usually experience significant emotional distress in the following situations:
Common anxiety provoking social situations include:
a) talking with people in authority
b) dating and developing close relationships
c) making a phone call or answering the phone
d) interviewing
e) attending and participating in class
f) speaking with strangers
g) meeting new people
h) eating, drinking, or writing in public
i) using public bathrooms
j) driving
k) shopping
Physical symptoms that may occur during, or in anticipation of, the situation include:
a) rapid heartbeat
b) sweating
c) muscle tension
d) upset stomach
e) trembling
f) shaky voice
g) dry mouth
h) blushing
i) queasiness
j) ticks
k) hyper ventilation
l) difficulty making eye contact.
People with social anxiety disorder may never know that their anxiety is irrational and does not make "head" sense. Nevertheless, "knowing" something is never the same as "believing" and "feeling" something. Thus, in people with social anxiety, thoughts and feelings of anxiety persist and show no signs of going away. It's in such cases that On-line forums become handy.
The internet offers many sites that focus on the topic of social anxiety and have forums on these issues. This in an excellent opportunity, especially for individuals with this condition to get together and articulate their fears and feelings. These forums are purposely created to offer people with social phobia a chance of meeting similar individuals without feeling self-restricted and conscious. These on-line social forums are ideal for most people, because it gives them sufficient time to type or speak whatever they have in mind.
Relaxation is a very important thing to the patients of social anxiety and these on-line forums provides then with that much needed environment, where they need to feel comfortable. Different resources that may be of interest to sufferers of social anxiety disorders are all offered to them. It also makes communication to individuals with similar conditions easy. The social anxiety forums also offer a good environment to meet new people from various parts of the world and make friends, other than just learning about their experience with social anxiety. You can also learn new tricks of managing the condition and also share tips of your own.
The number of social anxiety on-line forums is growing fast, so you are sure to find many. They may be all similar but offering different content. They provide chat capability where instant communication is possible in addition to forum boxes, where you can leave your comment, and it can be answered immediately or when someone logs into the site. It therefore pays to check on-line for these social anxiety forums if you are a sufferer of anxiety. AND Who knows; you might just find the right help.
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Overcoming social anxiety in a college setting?
I have severe social anxiety disorder to the point where I am scared to talk to anyone who I may imagine is "better" than me because I feel as though I'm not good enough to talk to them. I avoid talking on the telephone and in public at all costs. I have a very physical reaction when asked to speak up (for example, my heart starts racing and I feel faint). This fall I started college and I thought I may be able to break out of that social fear because I was in a new setting and I could be whoever I wanted to be. I quickly realized that being in a new setting did not matter and I still had the same reaction to talking to people. I've had the most difficult time making any kind of connection with anyone. This has led me to dangerous and depressing behavior to the point where I just want to be home all the time. I feel as though I'm all alone in this too because everyone else seems to have made a ton of friends already and I can't. This depresses me even more. I am attending counseling sessions at the campus counsel center, but it's not really working that well for me. Is there any suggestion anybody can give me at this point? I feel absolutely hopeless.
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How can I overcome social anxiety / phobia? It's so frustrating!?
Here's the deal everyone --
My boyfriend and I have been dating for about 9 months or so now and have been living together for about 5 months. Before I came along, him and his room mate Josh would go out and party all the time at bars, house parties etc. When I moved in we did some heavy partying at first but then after a while we calmed down some. I don't like hanging out with his friends and it's almost as if I want to do nothing but just hangout and be with him all the time. I don't really have any friends that are girls except for one or two people... but I have a few select guy friends. I don't like hanging out with his friends because they are much older than I am. I'm 19 and he's 30 years old. I don't know how to talk to any of them or bring up subjects and/or start conversations. This is the most frustrating thing in the world to overcome/change. Josh, my boyfriends' roommate, always blames it on me because they can't go out and have fun with their friends even though I tell my boyfriend and Josh to go out and have a good time and that I just want to stay at home and sleep or watch movies. Also my boyfriend has mention to me a few times about how he wants to go hangout with his friends(lots of girls and a few guys) and he blames it on me.
I already suffer from minor depression for about 2 years now and an eating disorder for about 1 year now (went from being 170 to weighing 100-104 pounds. I'm also afraid of people that I've just met and have been around only a few times because about 1-2 weeks later I feel like they hate me.
Say that I was new to a job and there was a meeting one morning. That morning I was on time but everyone had gotten there before me and were all sitting down waiting for everyone to come. Say I walked into this room and then I would feel all eyes on me. My face would get blushed and I'd probably start sweating a bit. Then I would start thinking to myself, "Is everyone looking at me?" and "why?" and then I would think "Did I do something wrong?" and "What did I do wrong?" Then I would start to think, "Well if I did something now everyone hates me."
I would literally think everyone hated me for no apparent reason.
How can I fix this problem of mine?
P.S. - I have been seeing a psychologist on and off since I was in 4th grade.
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How I'm Overcoming Social Anxiety: Social Anxiety Cure
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