Have you ever heard of social anxiety? Although little debated, this disorder has been affecting more and more people.
In summary, this condition is characterized by a great fear of life in society and interactions with other people, however small.
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Generally, social anxiety sufferers begin to show their first symptoms at the age of 13, at the beginning of adolescence, but not always the person or their family members notice the disorder, which makes diagnosis and treatment difficult. problem resolution.
In the next seven topics, seven of the main signs of social anxiety are described and detailed, signs that most often go unnoticed.
If you feel you may have this problem or are concerned about a family member or friend who is antisocial, read on!
1. Afraid to be ashamed
The first and most glaring symptom of social anxiety is having an overwhelming fear of being embarrassed, even if that risk is not imminent.
Those with this condition are always imagining going through some embarrassing or humiliating situation before entering a public meeting, a party or a conversation with friends, for example.
2. Avoiding situations for fear of being judged
Usually the fear of embarrassing themselves felt by anxious people makes them also afraid of being judged for something they do.
With that, it is common for them to think things like “other people will think I'm stupid” or “I'll screw up and everyone will think I'm an idiot”.
For this reason, these people tend to get stuck and not progress in anything in their lives.
3. Only feel comfortable around a few specific people
As we've mentioned so far, social anxiety makes people feel insecure in meetings with many people.
As a result, affected individuals tend to show excessive attachment to some specific people, such as parents, siblings or cousins, for example.
4. Feeling uncomfortable with other people noticing your behavior
Another great fear generated by cruel social anxiety is having the problem noticed by other people.
Social anxiety sufferers often find that people notice shaky hands, flushed cheeks, slurred speech, and other features of their fear of being in public. Thus, they avoid even more social interaction.
5. Having “private” fears
Do you know someone who is afraid to do simple things in public, like talking, eating or even walking where many people are crowded? So this person may have social anxiety.
Here, the already characteristic fears of doing something “wrong” and being made fun of by others are repeated.
6. excessive self-criticism
Those with social anxiety spend a lot of time analyzing themselves and beating themselves up over things that, in their mind, were interaction mistakes.
This excess of self-criticism is another clear sign of this condition and can even be considered one of the most harmful, as it generates a great psychological impact on the individual.
7. Create things that don't exist and take that as true
Finally, we have one more big sign of social anxiety: the firm belief in something that doesn't exist, that it has invented itself.
Social anxieties often imagine things like: "people think I'm weird" or "everyone thinks I'm ugly or worthless" and truly believe it.
In the end, these thoughts are usually just fables created by the anxious person and do not reflect the reality of the facts.
When noticing signs of social anxiety, you should seek out a specialist for a preliminary conversation. In that case, it must be a psychologist.
In general, treatment for this condition involves the use of medication and occupational therapy sessions to stop the symptoms and reverse the psychological condition of the affected person.
In the vast majority of cases, social anxiety is completely reversed and the person starts to have a light and happy life after being cured.
Graduated in History and Human Resources Technology. Passionate about writing, today he lives the dream of acting professionally as a Content Writer for the Web, writing articles in different niches and different formats.