WHAT ARE SOME SYMPTOMS OF SOCIAL ANXIETY DISORDER? // Are you struggling with Social Anxiety?

What's going on? Welcome back to my channel. Social anxiety is not just extreme shyness. It's not just not wanting to go to the grocery store on a Saturday because it's too people y and it's not just this feeling of extreme self consciousness around others or in public situations. Social anxiety is a diagnosis. And there's things I want to talk about today. While I'm not going to give you the full criteria, I want to give you the general things that I'm looking for. When somebody comes into me thinking that maybe this is something that they're struggling with, or when I'm getting to know a client, some things that I'm looking for to figure out if this is what they're struggling with. When I'm looking at social anxiety and I'm diagnosing it, there's 10 criteria that I need to look at to figure out if social anxiety is what is happening or what is going on. But I want to talk about a few of them. If this is something that you struggle with or you're thinking it's something you struggle with, or if you have been diagnosed with social anxiety and maybe for whatever reason you still don't understand why it's an issue or maybe why you're diagnosed with it. The psycho education of mental health is a huge piece of breaking stigmas, starting conversations and helping you understand maybe what's going on with you or a friend or a loved one. So the three big things that I want to talk about when I'm looking at social anxiety is one, this disproportionate reaction to a situation. So if you're going into a situation or you're in a situation and your reaction is, is completely disproportionate to that situation. It's something that I ask more about and that I figure out the context of this situation. It's kind of equivalent to telling a child no and them having a full blown temper tantrum. Right? I just told them no. They're now throwing themselves on the ground at the store, screaming, making a scene. Their reaction is disproportionate to, to just being told no. It's a little bit of a different situation because children don't have the emotional regulation skills. Usually they need to be taught that stuff. But that's the example I give when I'm trying to get people to understand what it means when we're looking at is your reaction disproportionate to the circumstance or the situation? The second thing I look at when it comes to social Anxiety is, are these things that this person has been experiencing, have they been present for more than six months? Social anxiety is not again, just feeling super self conscious or not liking the grocery stores on Saturday mornings because there are so many people, or you have to give a speech and you're freaking out and you're over preparing and you're working yourself up. Are they possibly signs of it? Yes, maybe. But when we're talking about social anxiety, a lot of these symptoms have been present and ongoing and impacting someone's daily functioning for longer than six months. And that's a big key indicator of if it's just situational or something, they need skills around versus full blown social anxiety that is crippling to their ability to be in public or deal with daily life. And the third thing is fear. Somebody who struggles with social anxiety, everyday interactions and situations tend to cause that person extreme fear, anxiety, worry, embarrassment. So social anxiety is very much marked by fear, by irrational fear, fear of being watched and judged, fear of humiliation like public humiliation, fear of possibly saying the wrong thing or offending somebody. And again, that's not an exhaustive list. Those are just some examples. And I think we've all dealt with some kind of, ooh, what if I say the wrong thing. But somebody who struggles with social anxiety, these are all consuming thoughts and the thoughts are maybe stopping them from living their daily life. So the fear again is very disproportionate to the situation and it's impacting their daily functioning. With those irrational fears, with those emotional symptoms tend to come the physical symptoms. The sweating hands, the heart racing, the stomach upset, the physical symptoms that also come along with symptoms of anxiety. Right, because we're talking about social anxiety. So it's not just the fear. Along with the fear comes maybe those, they avoid situations altogether because they feel so much like their mind and their body are, are out of control and they lack maybe the skills or the of sometimes start to avoid situations altogether so that they don't even have to put themselves in this situation to have to deal with those symptoms. They're bad enough even thinking about giving that speech, thinking about going to the grocery store, maybe their stomach starts to turn and they start to have these symptoms and these reactions and even thinking about going into this situation or this event, that's maybe months down the line. So the physical symptoms with social anxiety are also very present again along with the fear and the worry, the embarrassment and the anxious thoughts and emotional symptoms that come up with it. Social anxiety can make it really difficult for somebody to live their normal daily life. They have trouble meeting people, making friends, interviewing or getting or keeping a job, dating, things like eating and drinking in front of other people, going to grocery stores. Those daily interactions that a lot of people take for granted are really, really, really difficult for somebody with social anxiety. They feel out of control, they maybe avoid it and they stop kind of being able to enjoy life and because they're so consumed with the anxiousness that comes along with these social interactions that daily life requires. But if this is something that you struggle with, no matter what level it is, therapy can help. Talk to somebody, get support. Because if you have social anxiety or this is something that you struggle with, it doesn't mean that it has to control your life and it doesn't mean that that it has to stop you living your life. Don't forget to subscribe. And I will be back next Wednesday with another video.