Each year, thousands upon thousands of new high school graduates enter college to begin one of the most exciting chapters of their lives. This is a time where young people get to move away from home, learn valuable life skills, meet interesting new people, and pursue the career of their dreams. While all of this may sound like nothing but positivity, there’s a dismal side to all of this that many individuals are not aware of. Out of all of the problems that college students face, social anxiety is an issue that has persisted throughout the years, and has not begun to improve. According to research out of The University of Plymouth and The University of the West of England, 10% of all university students surveyed said they experienced significant anxiety (Weaver, …show more content…
2012). Also, another survey conducted by the same institutions concluded that out of 787 university students, a shocking 52-55% reported frequent anxiety, 21-24% reported frequent depression, panic, and anger, and another 4-7% reported frequent thoughts of self-harm or suicide, which can be traced back to social anxiety issues (Russell & Topham, 2012).
Unless awareness is raised, serious problems regarding this issue will begin to emerge. A firm understanding of what exactly a social anxiety disorder is and what can cause it, the importance of addressing this issue, and potential treatments and the benefits of these treatments are all essential components of beginning to combat this issue and help better college students’ experiences. What is a Social Anxiety Disorder and What Causes it? In general, Social Anxiety Disorder, or Social Phobia, is defined as an anxiety disorder characterized by an overwhelming amount of anxiety and excessive self-consciousness in everyday social situations (“Social Phobia,” 2014). These individuals have trouble with basic communication and interaction, often to the point where they can physically feel the effects of their anxiety. Profuse sweating, stomach ache, and nausea are not uncommon occurrences when a person with Social Anxiety Disorder is placed in an uncomfortable situation. There are several hypothesized causes of Social Anxiety Disorder; however, one of the most
common is the idea that this disorder begins when an individual is in the early stages of their development and is dependent on the environment in which they are raised. The parenting styles of those with social anxiety have a considerable affect on whether or not a person can develop Social Anxiety Disorder, according to Saima Parvez and Erum Irshad. In a study conducted at The University of Peshawar, 250 male and 250 female students between the ages of 17 and 25 were clinically examined to determine whether or not they have Social Anxiety Disorder. The most important component of this study was the parenting style that the students diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder were raised under. They not only found that 50% of the male students and 62.5% of the female students were socially anxious, they also found that those diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder, more often than not, were raised by very authoritarian and rejecting parents (Parvez & Irshad, 2013). This idea is also consistent with the Behaviorist Perspective in the field of psychology. The Behaviorist Perspective states that people have no free will and our behavior is determined by our environment; our mind is a “blank slate” at birth (McLeod, 2013). Since the Behaviorist Perspective states that our behavior is determined by our environment and the results of the previous study clearly chow a correlation between social anxiety and certain parenting styles, it can be concluded that an individuals upbringing most likely has the largest effect on a person’s susceptibility to this disorder.
Everyone experienced feeling shy and nervous at some point in their lives. Being shy doesn’t mean that a person lacks talent, because it just might be that they don’t feel comfortable in certain situations.
One of the most common anxiety disorder is social phobia, which can sometimes be interchangeable with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). Marc de Rosnay, and others, states that Social Anxiety Disorder is characterized by a clearly noticeable fear and avoidance of most social situations where the individual may be put under scrutiny by others, and by fear in such situations, the individual will behave in an embarrassing manner (de Rosnay). One of the most notable feature of social phobia is that it has an early onset, as early as 7-9 months in most cases. The characteristics of having social phobia, or social anxiety disorder, is that the individuals are shy when meeting new people, quiet in a large group, blush easily, and often avoids making eye contact. There are a lot of concerns/problems with having social anxiety disorder. As a group, individuals with anxiety disorders had the largest burden of role disability compared to other common mental health conditions, exceeding the burden for mood disorders and in some cases, substance abuse (Grigorenko).
And later the website adds that “common, everyday experiences that may be difficult to endure when you have social anxiety disorder”. These include the following:
Many of us had a stage in their lives when they were shy. Some will always be like this. While it might be considered as disadvantage, it's common and not surprising. But what if we're so embarrassed around other people that we start to avoid them, being in public makes us nauseous, and we have tremendous difficulty with even buying food in stone? What's more, it makes us feel worthless and totally destroys our social life... It's not a simple shyness anymore, even if many people would classify it as such. This problem, still not known very well, is called Social Anxiety Disorder. Hippocrates was apparently first human to notice symptoms of social anxiety, which was named social phobia for the first time in around 1900. It wasn't really known until 1985, when psychiatrist Michael Liebowitz and clinical psychologist Richard Heimberg done a research on this topic and made it more widely recognized. Moreover, it's actually world's third biggest mental problem - as The Kim Foundation claims, there are about 40 million people around 18 years old having this disorder. Psychologists researching causes of this phenomena. I am writing about social anxiety disorder, because I am trying to show you how it can change someone and why it's extremely difficult to live with it in order to explain how we can understand person suffering it, help him or her or recognize this disorder, so that we will know more about human psychology.
Almost everyone alive has a fear of something whether it be heights, spiders or even clowns. Some people however have more serious issues with their fears, fears that follow them almost everywhere they go, these fears are called phobias. It is estimated that 4 to 5 percent of Americans have some type of phobia, which is an irrational fear of situations and certain objects. There are over 500 known phobias; a very common phobia is social phobia.
Social anxiety disorder can be defined as the persistent fear of one or more social or performance situations in which the person is exposed to unfamiliar people or to possible scrutiny by others, and where exposure to such situations provokes anxiety.
Social anxiety is a predominant disorder amongst numerous individuals (Moscovitch, Gavric, Senn, Satnesso, Miskovic, Schmidt, McCabe, Antony 2011). Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is defined as a fear of rejection and being negatively judged by others in social situations (Kashdan, Farmer, Adams, Mcknight, Ferssizidis, Nezelf, 2013).
Having anxiety is common and a part of everyday life however; there is a huge difference between a fear and a social phobia or anxiety disorder. The difference and important distinction psychoanalysts make between a fear and a phobia is “a true phobia must be inconsistent with the conscious learning experience of the individual” (Karon 1). Patients with true phobias “do not respond to cognitive therapy but do respond well to psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapy” (Karon 2). Social phobia is a serious anxiety disorder that should not be taken lightly or mistaken as a fear you will simply grow out of the older you get. Social phobia has the power to destroy lives and can prevent people from living and enjoying their life to the fullest. Social phobia is a disabling condition that often starts between the ages of early childhood and late adolescence. The origins of social phobia can be linked to “traumatic social experiences and social isolation” (Hudson118-120). Social phobia is treatable however; research and statics show that not many seek help.
According to DSM V, Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), is defined as a persistent fear of one or more social or performance situations in which the person is exposed to unfamiliar people or to possible scrutiny by others. The individual fears that he or she will act in a way (or show anxiety symptoms) that will be embarrassing and humiliating (DSM V, 2014).
Charles Spurgeon said “Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.” I never really thought about this until I started high school. I didn’t really have social anxiety until high school. Whenever I was called on or we were in groups, I would get anxiety so I told my mom about it and asked if I could do online school.
College is hard, scary, and stressful especially with children involved. I think it is a good thing I went to college when I did otherwise, I would be stuck in the same minimum wage job that I have had for the past year. It is going to be hard and stressful but the truth is that were all scared. It is just a matter of pushing myself into getting where I want to be. My main fear with college is mainly flunking out, it is scary but, it is also achievable. I thought to myself, “Hey, if my best friend can go to college then why I can I not”. There was three things that pushed me into going to college. Those are: getting a better job so I can spoil my children, continuing my education, and to be a role model for my children.
There are many different perceptions about people with social anxiety. People who do have it are often seen by others as just being shy, aloof, constrained, unfriendly, uneasy, quiet, indifferent, or diffident. The people who are afflicted with social anxiety may be clouded by these perceptions as well, so they may fail to seek treatment. Because the problem is generally unheard of, they may think that they are the only ones who suffer from it. People who do seek treatment are misdiagnosed 90% of the time, often labeled as "personality disorder", "manic depressive", or "schizophrenic", among other things. This is because social anxiety is not well understood by the general public, or medical or health care professionals. They are not even sure of the real cause of it or what it stems from.
All of us at one point in our life have had a fear of something, whether it’s public speaking, trying something new for the first time, or even presenting just like we're all going to be doing. I'm sure most of us will be nervous and we try our best to get rid of that feeling. Some people have Social anxiety which is known as social phobia. It is the fear of social interaction with other people and of being judged and looked down upon. It can also be a fear of embarrassment. This leads to feelings of inadequacy, self-consciousness, and depression. Social anxiety is an issue that affects many individuals as it should be taken more seriously and should not be considered as a weakness. Moreover, individuals with social anxiety should not be judged
Social anxiety is a common personality disorder, it is caused by excessive and unreasonable fear of social situations. This type of anxiety is triggered by the fear of being judged by others, based off of who they are or how they behave. People who suffer from social anxiety tend to experience distorted thinking, leading to fake accusations about the outcome
I’ve had bad anxiety since seventh grade and I didn’t really think much of it until it got worse as I became older. The simplest things like ordering something at a restaurant became a big challenge for me. And I’m not the only one because it is estimated that about 7% of the population suffers from some form of social anxiety at the present time. The lifetime prevalence rate for developing social anxiety disorder is 13-14%.