Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD)
Social anxiety disorder is a mental health condition involving the fear of social interactions. There is an intense fear of being negatively judged or humiliated by others. People with social anxiety disorder (SAD) feel like their anxiety is beyond their ability to control, affecting their day to day activities.
Effects on
Social Development
Social situations almost always provoke fear and anxiety in patients with SAD. Anxiety symptoms may also arise from anticipating difficult interactions. Some common feared situations include having a conversation, public speaking, meeting someone new, dating situations, speaking on the phone, etc. These feelings cause SAD patients to avoid social interactions altogether. This avoidance can lead to further social problems. It can lead to a lack of confidence and more difficulty in coping with difficult situations. Social anxiety disorder is associated with elevated rates of school dropouts, decreased quality of life, and decreased workplace productivity. SAD patients tend to live longer at home, and usually seek employment involving no social contact. There is also an association with being single, unmarried, or divorced. …show more content…
First-degree relatives have a two to six times greater chance of having SAD. (APA, 2013) People with high behavioural inhibition (experience distress and withdraw from unfamiliar situations), are more vulnerable to environmental influences, such as social anxiety modelling by parents. Also, patients with SAD have been found to have a hypersensitive amygdala. In response to anxiety-inducing stimuli, increased amygdala activation was shown. The amygdala controls fear cognition, and the hyperactivation can cause people to overestimate social threats. Patients were also found to have an enlarged hippocampus depending on the different situations, and generally low levels of dopamine. Brain activity varies in different anxiety-induced situations. (Machado-de-Sousa et al.,
Effects on
Social Development
Social situations almost always provoke fear and anxiety in patients with SAD. Anxiety symptoms may also arise from anticipating difficult interactions. Some common feared situations include having a conversation, public speaking, meeting someone new, dating situations, speaking on the phone, etc. These feelings cause SAD patients to avoid social interactions altogether. This avoidance can lead to further social problems. It can lead to a lack of confidence and more difficulty in coping with difficult situations. Social anxiety disorder is associated with elevated rates of school dropouts, decreased quality of life, and decreased workplace productivity. SAD patients tend to live longer at home, and usually seek employment involving no social contact. There is also an association with being single, unmarried, or divorced. …show more content…
First-degree relatives have a two to six times greater chance of having SAD. (APA, 2013) People with high behavioural inhibition (experience distress and withdraw from unfamiliar situations), are more vulnerable to environmental influences, such as social anxiety modelling by parents. Also, patients with SAD have been found to have a hypersensitive amygdala. In response to anxiety-inducing stimuli, increased amygdala activation was shown. The amygdala controls fear cognition, and the hyperactivation can cause people to overestimate social threats. Patients were also found to have an enlarged hippocampus depending on the different situations, and generally low levels of dopamine. Brain activity varies in different anxiety-induced situations. (Machado-de-Sousa et al.,