Shyness VS. Social Anxiety

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DemonsInside

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If you have spent your whole life feeling as though you are just a shy person, how do you know if it is something more serious? Or, if you're a worried parent, you may be wondering if your child is afraid of strangers or not making new friends at school. In either case, how do you know whether it is a serious problem?

You have every right to be worried -- social anxiety disorder (SAD) is often dismissed as just extreme shyness. Statistics show that although symptoms usually start in childhood, the majority of people with the disorder don’t receive treatment (close to 75% of sufferers), and those who do seek treatment wait a long time to do so -- on average 14 years.

The sooner you act, the sooner you can avoid lost opportunities. When symptoms begin in childhood, they may take over your child’s life. Childhood is the time when social skills develop in preparation for the challenges of adolescence and adulthood. Children who suffer with SAD often do not develop appropriate social behaviors. As children grow with the disorder, they may become accustomed to having social fears and design a life based on avoidance.

What are the results of long-term untreated SAD? Social anxiety disorder can have a devastating impact on your education, career success, financial independence, and personal relationships. Often it will lead to an isolated lifestyle and subsequent depression or substance abuse.

Yet There Is Hope
For the majority of people (studies show roughly 70%), SAD can be treated successfully. It is so unfortunate that people wait so long or never get help when this disorder is so amenable to treatment.
Am I Just Shy?
The reason many people don’t seek help for SAD is that they don’t realize that they have a recognized psychiatric condition. But it's been officially declared in the most recent revision of the DSM-IV, as an official disorder with diagnostic criteria.
In general, the primary symptoms that distinguish shyness from SAD are the intensity of the fear, the level of avoidance, and the impairment of functioning that it causes in a person’s life. People with generalized SAD don’t just feel nervous before giving a speech. They may worry about the speech for weeks or months beforehand, lose sleep due to anxiety, and have intense symptoms of anxiety during the feared situation such as a racing heart, shortness of breath, sweating, or shaking.

The symptoms usually do not subside but get worse as the situation progresses. The person with SAD usually realizes that his fears are unfounded but is still unable to control them.

Screening for SAD
Your doctor or mental health care professional will conduct an in-depth interview to determine whether you meet the criteria for a diagnosis of SAD. However, as an initial step, he or she may have you complete a screening measure to determine the need for a more thorough follow-up evaluation.

One such screening test is the “Mini-SPIN” (Mini-Social Phobia Inventory) that consists of just three questions. The Mini-SPIN (and it’s sister version the full SPIN) were created by Dr. Jonathan Davidson of the Department of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center. In a study of more than 7,000 patients diagnosed with SAD, 89% of diagnosed patients were identified using this screening method.

To complete the SPIN, your doctor will have you rate the following three items in terms of how true they are for you on a scale of 0 to 4, where 0 is “not at all” and 4 is “extremely present.”

Fear of embarrassment causes me to avoid doing things or speaking to people.
I avoid activities in which I am the center of attention.
Being embarrassed or looking stupid are among my worst fears.
Generally, total scores of 6 or higher are indicative of possible SAD, however only a trained mental health professional can make a diagnosis. In addition to the SPIN and Mini-SPIN, there are several other instruments that may be used to screen for SAD including:

Liebowitz Social Phobia Scale
Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale
Social Avoidance and Distress Scale
Although screening instruments are very helpful in identifying potential problems with social anxiety, there is no substitute for a complete diagnostic interview conducted by a mental health professional. Your doctor will be able to provide a full assessment, or refer you to another professional more experienced in diagnosing the disorder.

Sources:

Rosenthal J, Jacobs L, Marcus M, Katzman M. Beyond shy: When to suspect social anxiety disorder. The Journal of Family Practice. 2007; 56: 369-374.

Connor KM, Kobak KA, Churchill LE, Katzelnick D, Davidson JR. Mini-Spin: A brief screening assessment for generalized social anxiety disorder. Depression and Anxiety. 2001; 14:137-140.
 
The avatar reminds me of how My ex-wife and I were. In love, but wanting to kill one another at the same time.
 
DemonsInside said:
The avatar reminds me of how My ex-wife and I were. In love, but wanting to kill one another at the same time.

But hes killing himself ....thats not each other.....J/k

XD I know what you mean
 
Wow thanks! I though social anxiety was something I've overcame, but I scored a 75 on that. I have 'Marked social anxiety'

I scored moderate or severe on more than half. That test really brings up things that I never really thought of. Like public urination or talking to authority figures. At least I don't have test anxiety. I'm not letting a puny test make me nervous =P
 
93 - Severe social phobia

Darn
 
73 - Marked Social Phobia

Well its not as bad as I expected.
I think it could be possible to beat SAD without any professional help, ima try.
 
52(fear) + 47(avoidance) = 99
You have very severe social anxiety.

Ouch.

rehd said:
Well... nothing a bunch of alcohol won't fix. :D

**** straight!
 
some of them i am fine with, but others scare me shitless. using a phone in public im fine with, eating in public? fear - 10 - avoidance - 100. i just hate going out and doing things in public alone. i like having parties and picnics because i know who will be there.. if i go out alone im scared someone will notice that i eat/do things alone :(
 
EveWasFramed said:
2
*looks around suspiciously*

Steel said:
4

Hmmm. *Looks around nearly as suspiciously*

eek.gif
are you two even humans?

*rips off mask to reveal social robots*

*gasp* I knew it!

jk

Well I took the test again and lets just say that I aced it:(
 
55 I have moderate social phobia, which sounds about right to me. I've never really felt like I was at either end of the spectrum, but I do tend to go out of my way a little sometimes to avoid having to pass certain people that make me uncomfortable, like the people that rent upstairs from my dad...they ALWAYS stare and it just makes me feel so damned uncomfortable, and its MY house that I lived in my whole life! >.> My dad just thinks I take things too personally and just need to "get over it" but he just fails to understand what I'm going through. It's the same thing if I see a group of loud, rowdy people, like when I went grocery shopping yesterday. I was waiting for this group of people to just leave so I could get in there and snatch some bananas so I just pretended to read my grocery list over and make it look like I was looking around trying to map it all out or something til they finally left. I waited a good few minutes there. Jeez, I feel pathetic. :(
 
I used to be a very shy anti-social person. This is how I dealt with it:

1) Stop trying to control the situation.
2) Think about how to get along with others in a respectable way.
3) Assume the worst. If something good happens you'll appreciate it more.
4) Learn to be yourself and not give a **** what anyone else thinks.
5) Be a humanitarian willing to give and help, benevolent in peoples eyes.

This is especially true in love. Here you feel the most shy, but you've got to make a choice between being yourself and playing a game to win her affections. The latter is not something I recommend. If there is to be any future with her, she's going to need to see who you really are. Or will you play the charade the rest of your life?

I don't think social anxiety is a defect either. I find it ludicrist we have to take drugs to function in a social environment where people are essentially distant from one another and only out for themselves. I mean you don't hear about all these so called disorders prior to the modern age. What did medieval people do to deal with this? Well medieval people didn't have the luxuries we have and couldn't afford to take them for granted. Tight intimacy was certainly a thing to be cherished and work was never involved filling out 1000 confusing forms. The pressure of modern days is enough to driven anyone mad.
 
30 - You do not have Social Anxiety.

Woo. :) I used to be really bad, like answering phone calls, going out in public etc. But I seem to have overcome it ever since I got away from people who kept me down. Plus working allowed me to communicate with customers through the cashier and by phone call. So that helped as well as I had to face my fears directly.
 

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