Hello Everyone & Welcome Back to the RealPositiveGirl Podcast!
Thank you so much for joining me again!
Happy Monday!
This week's theme for the podcast is: Social Anxiety
Social Anxiety affects people all over the world in different ways & to different degrees, but the core thought that so many people are affected by social interactions still brings a sense of unity when figuring out how to go about overcoming its symptoms.
I hope this week's episodes are helpful on how to overcome social anxiety, challenge it on the regular & understand more about the disorder, in general.
Here are some notes from today's episode:
- Let me start this episode with some stats. Approx. 18% of Americans suffer from it, which equates to over 15 million Americans & probably many more with those that are undiagnosed. And only approx. 37% of people affected are actually getting treatment, which is only 6 out of every 10 people affected.
- In all psychological diagnoses, almost 7% of those have Social Anxiety Disorder. And did you know that 50% of all diagnoses happen by age 11 & 80% of all diagnoses happen before age 20. And 60% of all cases are women.
- Now, let’s talk about what social anxiety is: It’s a chronic mental health condition that causes irrational anxiety within social interactions. And I don’t want you to be put off by the word ‘irrational’ because it’s not meant to be something offensive, but to describe your feelings lacking sound judgment, lacking mental clarity & general reason.
- Social anxiety generally affects those in social interactions & causes fear, self-consciousness, & embarrassment. Some symptoms include fear of situations where they will be judged, be worried about embarrassment, offending someone else or being humiliated.
- The negative connotations of possibly being judged by others can be a crushing fear. I experience this on the regular. And it can cause the avoidance of social situations all together because the fear of embarrassment or feeling awkward is too overwhelming.
- Social Anxiety Disorder is diagnosed generally when these feelings impede on your daily life.
- It was psychologist David Moscovitch that came up with the idea that social anxiety fears can be broken up into 4 different parts, rather than it being based on the type of situation you are in, like public speaking or direct conversations with someone else. Dr. Moscovitch proposed that those suffering from social anxiety are suffering more from a big flaw of theirs being revealed, not the situation itself. I think this is true.
- The four parts are 1. Flaws in Your Social Skills, 2. Fear that Anxiety Symptoms Will Be Noticeable, 3. Your Appearance, & 4. Your Personality & Character.
- Social anxiety is different for everyone, which means it could just be a public speaking fear, or so much more. It could be having the fear of showing your anxiety, of people finding out you have social anxiety, of not knowing what the right thing to do is in gatherings.
- It varies by person, as most mental health conditions do & most importantly, it doesn’t define you. It’s a part of you & may feel like it defines who you are because the feelings are so overwhelming, but you can gain control & overcome the power you feel it has over you.
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