Reflective Essay: The Effects Of Social Anxiety

The Effects of Social Anxiety

For over three years, I have suffered from social anxiety disorder and shattered my social life in the process. Social anxiety disorder, also known as social anxiety or social phobia, is a psychiatric disorder where the sufferer has a fear of being in social situations, and is unable to interact with other people. This might appear as bashfulness to those that lack understanding of the problem. However, this is a problem that is much more severe than that. Social anxiety has the potential to ruin peoples’ lives. By fearing other people, you become unable to communicate with them, and therefore you are unable to live a normal, everyday lifestyle.

Having a fear of people is not like your average fear of snakes or spiders. Fearing fellow human beings can become a serious problem. I used to feel discomfort whenever I was around people, especially strangers. I felt the worst when I was around huge crowds. It was difficult to move around, and my thoughts were focused on getting away immediately. If my condition was any more severe than it actually was, I would have experienced nausea and panic attacks, which are

also symptoms of social anxiety. Technically, the discomfort from social anxiety sufferers is triggered by the thought of being ridiculed or criticized by other people, rather than fearing people in general. To escape this uneasiness, sufferers tend to avoid people and public places. In school, I always walked to my classes using paths with less people. I also refrained from going to public places that were guaranteed to be packed with people, especially during the weekends. Because of this fear of people, it became difficult to interact with them.
I had a difficult time communicating with people.

Whenever I had something to say, I could not bring myself to say it. I also made short pauses before I replied to someone’s question. If I did manage to say something, however, I would always stutter my lines in a way that would annoy the person I was talking to. Even making eye contact proved to be difficult. Because of this unpleasant activity, social anxiety sufferers make sure to never develop any sort of conversation with anyone. Severe cases of social anxiety can cause improper communication with even your closest friends and family. I became distant from my loved ones as a result. I kept quiet, despite my strong desire to express my thoughts. Having the inability to communicate with people will only prove to be difficult when attempting to live a normal, everyday

lifestyle.
Many important tasks in life require you to be around people and interact with them. That includes your education and profession. I have failed a lot of school assignments and projects in the past, because I did not communicate with my group members. I had to rely on my mother to buy things that I needed, because I wanted to avoid interacting with the cashier myself. After I graduated from high school, I shut myself in my house for over six months because my fear of people had been at its peak. I do not know how long I would have stayed in that predicament if I had not done a thing about it. If I did stay that way, it would have been impossible to enter society and live as a working adult.
I am pleased to say that I am now recovering from social anxiety. However, I still find myself having difficulties communicating with people. I do not avoid people as much as I did before. I can manage to speak smoothly with people most of the time, as long as I think of what to say beforehand. Of course, there are still times when I cannot come up with words to say. As long as I have business with someone, then interacting with that person is no problem. Unfortunately, there are still many people who suffer from social anxiety and many more to fall victim to it. Only time can guide us through our hardships and recovery.