Social Anxiety Essay

1675 Words7 Pages

The term ‘anxiety’ refers to an emotional state which consists of feelings of worry and tension, worried thoughts and various corresponding changes at the physiological level. It may also be defined as response of multiple systems to an anticipated threat or danger. These responses arise from a combination of one’s biological and biochemical changes, one’s personal history and memory of various experiences, learned responses to various situations and the social situation itself. Anxiety is often seen as a uniquely human experience. Animals understand fear, but humans have a unique capacity to reflect and anticipate when they are anxious- a capacity other animals do not possess. The same term may be used to describe an emotional experience or …show more content…

Work on the very first edition of the same document began in 1983, and was culminated in 1992. It consists of codes for various diseases, there signs and symptoms, peculiar findings, complaints, causal and caused social circumstances and external causes of various disorders which aid in the diagnosis of the same. It defines Social Anxiety Disorder as ‘an anxiety disorder that involves intense fear of one or more social or performance situations in which scrutiny from others is possible. This fear is recognized as being unreasonable or excessive.’
Social Anxiety Disorder may arise from a variety of causes, which include:-
1) Inherited trait or behaviour patterns- It is often seen that entire families suffer from Social Anxiety Disorder, which hints at the disorder being an example of learned behaviour.
2) Biological causes- A structure in the brain called Amygdala which plays a role in fear response. Research suggests that people with extreme activity in this part of the brain have heightened fear response, which includes panicking in social situations. Serotonin imbalance may also have the same outcome.
3) Environmental causes- Besides being learned behaviour that runs in the family; Social Anxiety Disorder is also related to extremely strict, controlling or protective parenting. A few common symptoms of Social Anxiety Disorder are as