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Social Anxiety, Social Effects

Anxiety is one of the most common neuropsychiatric disorders in recent years and social anxiety disorder is a more specific subset to delve into. Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a particularly interesting disorder because of how common it is and how it affects the individual’s ability to interact with others, which is heavily required to be considered successful, healthy, and normal in today’s society. Though it is relatively well-known, most knowledge is surface-level and we must have more discussions about SAD to learn about its details and educate the public.


Basic Information and Diagnosis

Social anxiety disorder is primarily understood as a psychiatric disorder. Psychiatric disorders use psychological symptoms to diagnose patients and neurocognitive impairments are not necessary. They are characterized mainly by a person's thinking, feelings, and behavior. Due to this categorization, the main criteria for diagnosis is behavioral symptoms. The basic diagnostic criteria of SAD, according to DSM-5, is abnormally incessant and severe fear or anxiety in certain social settings, avoidance of social situations due to fear of embarrassment or humiliation, excessive feelings of anxiety in proportion to situation at hand, fear or anxiety not attributed to any other factor, and interference with daily life. Additionally, many use the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS), which is a questionnaire that uses situations to assess the individual’s social phobia. Certain neural patterns and behaviors have been linked to SAD as well, including emotional hyper-reactivity, cognitive distortions, and ineffective emotion regulation.


Possible Causes

It is typically thought to be caused by genetic factors, though there is no explanation for which gene causes it. Other causes include personal experience, underdeveloped social skills, social environment, and biology (specifically the brain structure amygdala, which is responsible for regulating emotions of fear and aggression). These causes can be categorized into different types, with inherited traits being a genetic cause, brain structure being a congenital cause, and social environment being an environmental cause. Researchers are more sure of the details regarding the environmental and biological causes, while they are still unsure of the degree to which genetic factors play in the development of SAD or which specific genes are responsible.


Treatment and Recent Advancements

This disorder is typically treated with psychotherapy or medication like SSRIs, SNRIs, or other antidepressant and anti-anxiety medications. Medications such as those prescribed for SAD are used to aid and relieve the persistent and harmful symptoms, most often aiming to balance the neurochemical bases that affect and induce the disorder. Psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy

CBT) being the most effective, aims to

get rid of unhealthy habits and mindsets patients have regarding themselves and social situations. As we progress in advancements, more and more research is being done on neuropsychiatric disorders to unlock the vast amount of information that is still unknown. Recent advances have been exploring “levetiracetam, atypical antipsychotics, or D-cycloserine in combination with CBT” as new strategies for treatment.


Social Influences and Stigmatization

Social anxiety disorder has been and is currently stigmatized in society. Many stigmatize SAD by assuming that it is easily fixable, a sign of weakness, overdramatic, not a “real disorder,” a normal feeling, simply avoidable, and more. This could be largely due to the demographic that SAD affects. It has been found that women are more likely to develop these social phobias than men. Women in general affect how SAD is diagnosed by adding a neurological perspective with observations of brain chemistry and hormone fluctuations. Our social view of women as being more vulnerable, conscious of others, and less confident causes our view of the common symptoms of SAD to be normal and less recognized.This stigma falls under the category of public stigma, where there is a common negative misconception that society holds; however, this can also lead to self-directed stigma. When people with SAD are treated as if they do not really have a disorder, they are being overdramatic, their behavior is not socially acceptable, or that their problems are easily avoidable, they can start to internalize these thoughts and harm their own mental health. This further prevents treatment as one can ignore or deny their disorder/symptoms out of fear of being rejected by society, pretend that they are improving simply to get rid of the title of having SAD, or feel as if they should not open up about their experience with SAD. These stigmas can be attributed partly to the mainstream understanding, or commonsense understanding, of the disorder. The mainstream understanding of SAD is slightly misconstrued. Many believe that SAD is simply nervousness, shyness, or fear of public speaking. While these traits are not inaccurate to what someone with SAD can act like, there are much more criteria one must fit to be officially diagnosed.


Social anxiety is still stigmatized in society, leading to many problems in establishing proper treatment or policies. It is concerning to know how negatively SAD, and all mental health issues in fact, are still being viewed. Though we progress little by little everyday, we must make an effort to educate the public on mental health issues such as SAD to make the world a more accepting and accommodating place.




Works Cited


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