Psychologyand Social Phobia

8 Pages 2004 Words

o go through a lifetime of therapy. Phobias can be learned from other people, or they can arise because of traumatic instances in life.

Social Phobia is one of the most common phobias and often goes unrecognised as it can appear in many guises and can be extremely debilitating. The sufferer of social phobia constantly worries about what others are thinking about them, whether those people are judging them and can end up feeling that they are being noticed in everything that they do.

Symptoms include:
 A marked fear or dread of social situations. The sufferer fears that they will act in an embarrassing or humiliating way and that other people will think that they are stupid, inadequate, or foolish.

 In some cases the fear is only for certain situations where the sufferer will be looked at by others even if they are known to them. For example they may become very anxious if they have to ‘perform’ in some way such as give a talk or presentation. But they are ok in informal social gatherings.

 They may have weeks of anxiety prior to attending a social event and try to avoid such situations as much as possible.


 If they go into the feared situation they may:
• become very anxious and distressed
• may develop some physical symptoms of anxiety such as: a fast heart rate, palpitations, shaking, sweating, feeling sick, chest pain, headaches, stomach pains, a ‘knot in the stomach’, fast breathing.
• May blush easily.
• May have an intense desire to get away from the situation.
• May even have a panic attack.

Up to 1 in 10 adults have social phobia to some degree. So, it is one of the most common mental health conditions. It usually develops in the teenage years and is usually a lifelong problem unless treated. Just over twice as many women are affected than men. Social phobia is anxiety disorder linked to the presence of other people which can be ...