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Social Anxiety Disorder

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Social anxiety disorder is a mental problem that leads one to experience a persistent fear of social or performance situations. The individual believes that something terrible might happen to them or be scrutinized and evaluated in some way, though they know their anxiety is unfounded, they chose to avoid social gathering. The severity of the discomfort by the individual depends from one person to another, and they vary. Individuals experiencing anxiety have some symptoms that are visible and others that are not visible. For example, anxiety can lead to panic, confusion, and diarrhea muscle tension sweating or blushing. Specific social anxiety disorders according to the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorder Fifth edition (DSM-5) criteria for social phobia show the following:

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A person marked fear or anxiety about one or more social situations in which he or she fears that others in the society will scrutinize them this occurs to children’s in peer settings and not only during interactions with adults.

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The person experiencing social phobia understands that he or she will behave in a way that will indicate anxiety symptoms at the same time he knows that the fear is excessive and unnecessary.

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The social situation almost provokes and promote fear among children they express this fear by either crying, clinging, freezing and others shrinking.

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The fear or avoidance is persistent, and in most cases, it can last for six months or more.

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The anxiety or social phobia is not explained better by symptoms of another mental challenge or mental disorder (DSM IV, 1994)

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Statistics about disorder

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Many scholars have undertaken research to find and analyze issue relating to social disorders in the society. Anxiety sometimes can be a good thing, but in other times it can be a challenge, medical research shows that anxiety is a result of stress. The body reacts in numerous ways. Anxiety is most common to psychiatric illness that most affect children and adults. In the United States, an estimated 40 million people have social phobia or anxiety disorders. Those that receive treatment in the US are just a third of the number suffering disorders. Social anxiety disorder is treatable. (Beesdo, 2007). There six major types of anxiety disorders and each disorder is characterized by its own symptoms profile. Some include generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, phobia, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Research has shown that up to 1 in 5 adults will have an anxiety disorder in their lifetime. Other study showed that 1 in 10 people would have anxiety disorder each calendar year.

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Risk Factors

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Some of the risk factors associated with social anxiety disorder include:

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Other mental disorder; this occurs to those people who are suffering from another psychological problem. For example phobias and substance abuse

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Age- social anxiety begins during an individual childhood or during their adolescence period. Sometimes it’s difficult for social anxiety to develop after age 25 (Scholten, 2003).

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Genetics-This disorder is highly experienced in first-degree relatives genetic influence on social anxiety disorder is between 28% and 39% (Scholten, 2003).

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Medical diseases- people experiencing heart disease, asthma, difficulty in seeing or hearing are at high risk of having an anxiety disorder (Scholten, 2003).

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Childhood experiences- this is associated with increased cases of early childhood separation from parents or sexual abuse.

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History of the disorder

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History of social anxiety disorder is best described as a series of event that leads to the diagnosis that we currently know and talk about. In early 400 BC, the conditions were described as love for darkness; Hippocrates described individuals who did not like to mingle others as people who enjoyed being in the dark. The early 1900s and part of the 20^th Century, psychiatrists used terms as social phobia and social neurosis to describe shy patients. DSM-5 was published, and the term social anxiety disorder replaced social phobia. Doctors used his term to show that the disorder is abroad term (Bandelow, 2004).

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Treatment Options

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If one is diagnosed with social anxiety disorder, he or she can receive treatment from a doctor through prescribed medication. A counselor or a doctor who is trained to treat this type of disorder can help the patient to become more comfortable in social gatherings. There is no surgical treatment for this condition. Therefore, therapy treatment is appropriate (Rodebaugh, 2004).

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Reference

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American Psychiatric Association. (1987). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders (DSM-III-R). American psychiatric association.

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Bandelow, B., Torrente, A. C., Wedekind, D., Broocks, A., Hajak, G., & Rüther, E. (2004). Early traumatic life events, parental rearing styles, family history of mental disorders, and birth risk factors in patients with social anxiety disorder. European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience, 254(6), 397-405.

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Beesdo, K., Bittner, A., Pine, D. S., Stein, M. B., Höfler, M., Lieb, R., & Wittchen, H. U. (2007). Incidence of social anxiety disorder and the consistent risk for secondary depression in the first three decades of life. Archives of general psychiatry, 64(8), 903-912.