The Many faces of social anxiety symptoms

 Many People who suffer from social anxiety or excessive shyness do not even realize that their experiences are a part of social anxiety.  Social anxiety is simply the mind-body reaction to the stress created by the fear of negative evaluation by others.  Following are some general categories of social anxiety symptoms

THE “QUIET EFFECT”:  this set of symptoms has to do with inhibition of your normal personality.  You may have noticed that when you are around people that you do not know well you sometimes find yourself feeling less spontaneous.  Others may later ask you, “Why were you being so quiet?” You may not really even know the answer.  Well, now you do.  The answer is that social anxiety causes inhibition of any loud, spontaneous, or attention-seeking reactions.  This is due to the instinct social anxiety sufferers have for avoiding the possibility of negative evaluation when some part of your mind perceives the situation has a high stakes situation.  Often, the part of your brain that makes this evaluation is hard to understand.  Learning more about the thought process that contributes to this reaction will help you to gradually unlock your spontaneous, friendly-type interactions.

THE PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS: if all roads lead to Rome, all stress and anxiety leads to physiological symptoms.  Though the following physical symptoms of social anxiety are not unique to social anxiety, they can be a significant problem for people with social phobia (another term for social anxiety).  One social anxiety symptom that is often overlooked is intestinal discomfort.  Many people with social anxiety have cramps in their stomach during social events or after social events.  Medical researchers are only now beginning to discover the powerful links between mood states and our gut.  For example, it has recently been discovered that the digestive track has more serotonin receptors than our brains do (Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that is associated with mood and a lot of other things).  Some people become nauseated if the anxiety gets strong enough, though this is less common.  Other people may experience bouts of diarrhea in anticipation of certain types of social events.

Other physical symptoms include facial flushing, excessive blushing, or sweating.  Some people find that they have trouble urinating in public restrooms (which may be a symptom associated with the “quiet effect” that would be hard to explain without getting into some detailed psychophysiological connections).

Some people experience rapid heartbeat that feels out of control.  For some people who have a rapid heartbeat, the fear that others will notice that their heart is beating fast becomes a prominent source of anxiety.  Don’t worry, other people notice pounding rapid heart beat (no, not even in your neck).  Some people experience shaking limbs or fingers (which is a result of the excess adrenaline hormone that is released into your bloodstream when your brain anticipates danger).  For many people, the only significant social anxiety symptoms have to do with the fear that other people will see the signs of their excessive physiological arousal (such as shaking, blushing, or sweating).  How the excessive physiological symptoms got started in the first place is a topic for another article. 

For some people, the worst symptoms is difficulty breathing steadily (often associated with trembly voice or difficulty finishing an entire sentence without pausing to take another gasping breath).  You’ll learn a lot more about his issue in the Social Anxiety Secrets e-book that you can download from this website.

THE RUMINATION SYMPTOMS: rumination is the fancy psychological term for worrying about something over and over again in your mind.  This symptom of social anxiety often precedes social events.  But what many psychologists and therapists who don’t specialize in social anxiety treatment don’t realize is that social anxiety sufferers often experience the worst symptoms of negative rumination after social events.  People with social phobia often mentally replay the events that they just experienced, criticizing themselves for the minute social blunders, or worrying about whether someone may have misperceived something they said or thought negatively of them because of something they said or did.

THE AVOIDANCE SYMPTOMS: depending on how bad your avoidance symptoms are, this may be the worst set of symptoms.  Whether or not you have Social Anxiety Disorder rather than just social anxiety or shyness is dependent on the degree to which you avoid situations or events to escape from your social anxiety symptoms.  Avoiding turns into life impairment.  Avoiding also makes social anxiety symptoms get worse over time for a number of different reasons.  You can get help with avoidance symptoms by downloading the social anxiety secrets system.  Many of the avoidance symptoms are very subtle, such as avoiding eye contact or avoiding a class that requires group participation.  Other symptoms may be more blatant, such as refusing a job promotion because it will involve giving presentations or lead meetings.  Regardless of which kinds of avoidance symptoms you have, you really should find support to fight back against the avoidance.  Keep reading and keep learning.  You’re worth it.