How to Spot Social Anxiety Disorder Symptoms

Social anxiety disorder is a serious and sometimes debilitating mental condition. It is often confused with social anxiety, shyness and stage fright. Social anxiety disorder, however, is much more severe than these common types of anxiety. Mild anxiety is a normal reaction in many situations, but people with social anxiety disorder feel intense emotional and physiological symptoms when confronted with many everyday situations. Understanding the signs and symptoms of social anxiety can help you distinguish it from ordinary shyness and anxiety.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Spot the Physiological Symptoms of Social Anxiety Disorder

1. Look for symptoms that indicate a rise in body temperature. Sweating and blushing are common symptoms of anxiety.
2. Pay attention to the digestive system. Anxiety often causes an upset stomach, nausea and diarrhea. People who often leave social settings because they feel sick may have social anxiety disorder.
3. Observe symptoms of the "fight or flight" response, including weeping, shaking, heart palpitations and muscle tension. People with social anxiety disorder feel intense fear and desire to retreat in many social situations.

Spot Behavioral Symptoms of Social Anxiety Disorder

4. Look for avoidance. People with social anxiety disorder usually avoid situations where there are large gatherings of people or where they have to speak in front of others. Social anxiety disorder almost always includes fear of public speaking.
5. Try to make eye contact. Social anxiety disorder is often characterized by a reluctance to make eye contact, particularly with strangers.
6. Monitor escape routes. When confronted with an overwhelming situation, most people with social phobias will get out quickly or try to do so. Sometimes, leaving the situation is the only thing that can relieve the anxiety.

Spot Cognitive Symptoms of Social Anxiety Disorder

7. Listen carefully. People with social anxiety disorder often express feelings of inadequacy or low self-esteem. After interacting socially, they often feel they did everything wrong and are being judged by that.
8. Look out for obsessive analysis of past situations. Social phobia often causes sufferers to constantly go over past behavior to analyze what they did wrong and how they embarrassed or humiliated themselves. This internal dialog lasts a long time and helps confirm feelings of inadequacy.
9. Pay attention to pessimistic comments. Social anxiety disorder often makes people see ordinary situations and comments as reflecting negatively on them. For example, if someone laughs during a conversation, a person with social anxiety disorder might think he is being ridiculed.

Tips & Warnings

• Symptoms of social anxiety disorder are not hard to spot because they control so much of a sufferer's life.
• The behavioral, physiological and cognitive symptoms of social anxiety disorder are all interrelated. The cognitive symptoms cause the physiological symptoms. In turn, many of the behavioral symptoms come from an attempt to prevent or alleviate the physiological symptoms.