Social anxiety is when people fear being negatively judged by other people or embarrassing themselves in front of others. It is more severe than shyness and it can be distressing and overwhelming and interfere with daily life (e.g., work, studies, relationships). It can involve worrying about social interactions before a social event/interaction (anticipatory processing), feeling anxious and overwhelmed during a social event/interaction (in situation processing), and thinking in depth about how you were perceived/judged by others after the social event/interaction (post-event processing). All three processes feed into each other, causing a feedback loop and vicious cycle.
What It’s Like to Experience Social Anxiety
The symptoms of social anxiety can be experienced in several ways, most commonly: cognitively, emotionally, behaviourally, and physically:
Cognitive Symptoms
Cognitive symptoms are negative and unhelpful thought processes that include:
- The opinions of others (e.g., “He’ll think I’m an idiot”);
- Negative self-evaluations (e.g., “I’m boring”, “I’m incompetent”);
- The anticipation of poor performance (e.g., “I won’t know what to say”, “I’ll embarrass myself”);
- Thoughts about past performance (e.g., “I’m sure everyone thought I was stupid last time”).
- Negative outcomes (e.g., “She won’t want to talk to me”); and
- Even positive evaluations (e.g., “They thought I did a great job, so now I have to keep giving a great performance and I can’t, “wait until they figure out that was a fluke and I’ll never be able to perform at that level again”).
Behavioural Symptoms
Behavioural symptoms might include:
- Avoiding social situations altogether (i.e., social events and/or social interactions);
- Avoiding performing in front of others (e.g., giving a speech);
- Needing something to help feel more comfortable with respect to social situations (e.g., needing a close friend to go with to a party, having a few alcoholic beverages before a social event to feel more relaxed);
- Safety behaviours when in social situations (e.g., using mobile phone to avoid social interaction, minimally contributing to conversation, avoiding eye contact), or
- Leaving social situations early.
Emotional Symptoms
Emotional symptoms involve the fear, anxiety, and embarrassment that one feels about social situations and can impact mood and feel like depression.
Physical/Physiological Symptoms
Physical symptoms could include a racing heart, blushing, sweating, light headedness, muscle tension, and trembling.
The Interaction of Symptoms
The cognitive/thought processes mentioned above usually include mental imagery. This is where the socially anxious person has a negative and distorted mental self-image, imagining themselves from other’s perspectives, typically looking ugly with clear and overexaggerated signs of anxiety. This image is constantly updating and can be impacted by physiological symptoms, for example, feeling socially anxious makes the individual start to feel hot, and so they image themselves looking bright red and sweating profusely. These thoughts and mental images can accumulate over time and create that vicious cycle mentioned above from post-event processing to the next episode of anticipatory processing. These thought processes then impact behaviour by either avoiding social situations or using safety behaviours when in social situations.
If You Struggle with Social Anxiety, You’re Not Alone
Social anxiety is currently the most common mental health concern in Australia, according to the recent National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics using data collected between 2020 and 2022. However, research shows only around 35-40% of people with social anxiety have ever sought treatment for their social anxiety.
It is important to note that “anxiety” itself is not a bad thing. It is a natural emotion that everyone experiences at times and can be beneficial and protective in situations where we need to be more alert and ready to react. However, when we experience anxiety that is out of proportion to a situation, and when the anxiety is so severe that it interferes with our daily functioning and how we feel about ourselves, that is when it could be best to seek treatment for your anxiety, and in this case, your social anxiety.
Furthermore, many people who experience social anxiety also experience depression, other anxiety difficulties or alcohol use concerns, and many have a personal history of trauma. This may impact the type of treatment that is most effective for the individual.
What Can Be Done About Your Social Anxiety?
Research has found that the cognitive symptoms in particular, but also the behavioural symptoms of social anxiety are what tend to maintain the condition. Social anxiety can be tackled with many different therapeutic modalities, however, the evidence-based gold standard treatment for social anxiety is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). A course of CBT for social anxiety can help you to engage with the activities that you were once avoiding due to fear of social interaction and perceived judgement, and help you to feel more comfortable with yourself in social situations. CBT for social anxiety can include social skills training if that is a particular area of struggle for you.
As noted above, social anxiety often cooccurs with other mental health conditions, which means that treatment will be tailored to your individual needs. This could involve a combination of CBT and other treatment modalities, another modality altogether, or CBT might help with it all.
The psychologists at Endeavour Wellness would be honoured to support you in overcoming your social anxiety, so that you can live your life to the fullest.
