Social Anxiety Project
Project By Selena (Violet) Ortega
What is Social Anxiety? How does it happen?
Social anxiety is the extreme fear of being embarrassed, judged, made fun of etc. It is not just simple shyness either. People diagnosed with this are most likely to have few to no social life at all, it also goes with romantic relationships making them feel useless, alone or even ashamed of themselves. "Social Phobia" usually starts during childhood or the teenage years. Typical age when Anxiety starts is 13 years old.
What are the major symptoms for Social Anxiety?
- You're really anxious when you're around people.
- You're self-conscious in front of other people and feel embarrassed or out of place .
- You blush, sweat, or your hands shake/tremble around other people.
- You feel sick very tummy sick.
- You can't eat in front of other people without feeling embarrassed or judged.
How are people treated for it? And what types of therapy
Social Anxiety is normally treated with psychotherapy, meds, or sometimes both. Antidepressants are used for depression but they can also be used for Social Anxiety, in fact they are probably most prescribed than anti-anxiety pills. Some people do better with the therapy than the meds or some people do better with the meds than therapy.
What to do/ not do when encountering someone like this
- Never make someone who has Social Anxiety feel bad because of their anxieties.
- Always try and help them so they can overcome their anxieties.
- Never pressure them to be around a lot of people.
- If they begin to have an anxiety attack help them calm down.
- Never make them feel responsible for their illness.
Fun Facts
Anxiety Rockstar
Mitch Lucker was in a metal band and was great on stage but one thing people never noticed about him was that he had Severe Social Anxiety, despite the fact that after every show he met his fans and gave them autographs he took meds for this but his biggest inspirations to overcome his anxiety problem was his family/band members and his fans.
The Brain and Anxiety
Serotonin may be the cause of social anxiety when the amount of it is not right in the brain. Also scientists are doing research if body chemicals are the ones causing Anxiety Disorders not just social but others as well.
Genetic traits and Social Anxieties
Like some other mental illnesses, Social Anxiety can run in families. But scientists are still researching how the child learns the anxiety behavior or is it just automatically in their personality.