You might be wondering: What is social anxiety disorder?
It has been described as a marked fear of being judged, negatively evaluated or rejected in a given social setting.
It can be regarded as a normative human feature since most healthy human beings experience some form of social anxiety to a certain degree.
It seems to exist along a continuum and on the lower end of it, it is actually seen as an adaptive process.
As we move towards the upper end of the continuum, we start speaking of social anxiety disorder, or SAD.
Here, the social fears have reached levels that impede a good quality of life.
An important step in therapy for SAD sufferers is to understand that social anxiety is, in lower intensities, a good thing.
This allows for the setting of feasible and realistic therapy goals.
In social anxiety disorder, the fear of negative evaluation is usually accompanied by concerns about other people noticing this fear and being ridiculed for it.
SAD sufferers can only endure the feared social situations under severe distress when having to face them.
This means that simple things such as taking public transportation can turn into a real hassle.
Because of that, most affected people tend to avoid the feared situations in the first place.
But avoidance of the feared scenarios impedes making positive experiences
and therefore also the chance of disconfirming the believe that the situation is dangerous.
Another aspect of social anxiety disorder are so called safety behaviors.
An example could be taking out the exact amount of money necessary to pay at the checkout at the grocery store beforehand.
Safety behaviors tend to maintain the anxiety since positive experiences in the feared social situations are attributed to the safety behaviors.
An interesting facet of these behaviors is that they often provoke the exact same thing they intent to avoid.
Taking out the phone when with others to avoid appearing awkward, shy and reserved, for instance,
actually leads to appearing awkward, shy and reserved for not socializing with the others at all.
Another example could be putting on an extra layer of clothes to cover sweat spots on the shirt.
But the extra layer of clothing is what leads to the excessive sweating in the first place.
The anxiety often leads to physical symptoms, which many sufferers are highly ashamed of and try to control.
Among the most common ones are: a racing and pounding heart,
facial blushing, trembling extremities, accelerated breathing and shortness of breath,
excessive sweating, difficulties “letting go” on public restrooms, and loud bowel sounds.
Among the most commonly feared situations are:
public speaking, giving presentations and reading out loud in front of others.
Being observed while performing a task, such as making a payment, or eating and drinking at public places.
And in general being the center of attention, such as when having to introduce oneself to a group.
There are several models that try to explain the underlying problem of social anxiety disorder.
One highlights the discrepancy between the strong desire of generating a positive impression of the self on others
and the little confidence in one’s ability to actually do so.
Put slightly different in another model,
the discrepancy exists between the imagined high expectations of others and how the individual imagines to be seen by others.
From an evolutionary point of view,
the difference between the individual’s ideas about what is necessary to compete for a high-ranking social status,
and the little confidence in her or his ability to do so, lies at the heart of social anxiety.
Another model highlights the importance of the believed deficiencies of the self.
A perceived flawed self, beliefs it is unable to meet societal expectations and experiences social anxiety as a result.
The mentioned discrepancies are believed to lead the individual suffering from SAD to feeling at risk
of engaging in behaviors or revealing parts of the personality that are unacceptable to others.
This, in combination with the conviction that these events would have catastrophic consequences for the individual,
leads to anxiety in certain social settings.
And this anxiety reinitiates and reinforces this vicious cycle.
Another common feature among SAD sufferers is the perception that they have little control over their emotions.
Their attempts of controlling their anxiety usually backfire and make it hit them even harder.
This can be compared to someone trying to extinguish a fire by pouring gasoline on it.
It has the exact opposite effect of what it is intended to do.
We have already discussed the fear of negative evaluation related to social anxiety disorder.
But there is another fear we haven’t addressed yet, which is the fear of POSITIVE evaluation.
Why would people with social anxiety be afraid of positive evaluation?
To better understand this, it helps to keep in mind that the anxiety increases,
as perceived standards of performance increase and the perceived ability to meet these standards decreases.
Therefore, the individual that suffers from SAD is motivated
to keep the performance standards low, which decreases the gap between the two factors.
This can be accomplished by underachieving and failing on purpose,
making sure that other people’s expectations of one’s performance stay low.
This, at the same time, increases the confidence in being able to meet the perceived standards,
and thus the experienced anxiety is less intense.
This not only leads to less perceived pressure to perform well,
but also lowers the risk of upsetting individuals who are perceived to be higher ranked in the social hierarchy.
Wrapping up:
Social anxiety is seen as an adaptive process on the lower end of the continuum, since it improves the development and maintenance of stable relationships.
On the upper end of the continuum we speak of “social anxiety disorder”, which intervenes significantly with the quality of life of the individual.
Social anxiety disorder can be described as experiencing an intense fear of being judged, negatively evaluated, rejected,
in certain occasions positively evaluated, and of being incapable of generating a particular impression on others.
This is accompanied by concerns about others noticing this fear, severe distress when being faced with the feared situations,
engagement in avoidance and/or safety behaviors, and the physical symptoms of anxiety.