Summary: Living With Social Anxiety

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The article “Living With Social Anxiety” by Kirstin Fawcett (2015) is about the struggles, causes, and behaviors of people who are diagnosed with social anxiety disorder. The article used a more progressive example of a 48 year old man named Angelo Andreatos who had been suffering with social anxiety since he was in high school. Andreatos said that it first started off as he wouldn’t go to social events his high school hosted because he had issues such as acne and he was concerned with what other people thought of him. But as the years went on, Andreatos found himself not pursuing the career he wanted in college because he was not comfortable being surrounded by tons of people every day, and it eventually turned into him not being able to leave …show more content…

Many of the people who suffer from mild social anxiety sell themselves short academically or professionally, such as not getting the best education available or becoming their preferred career because they cannot handle the social interaction that comes along with it. However, there are some that deflect the issue of social anxiety and say that the people suffering are just very shy. That may be the case in some people, but if it gets to the point where the person cannot function properly in their daily lives, then something is wrong. Dr. Richard Heimberg of Temple University’s Adult Anxiety Clinic provided more insight on this stance, saying that people who are just “shy” tend to become more comfortable the more they are exposed to situations, but people with social anxiety do not. People with social anxiety display avoidant behavior, where they purposefully avoid situations that involve social interaction. This is because of their irrational thoughts of what they think the other people in the room are thinking about them. People who suffer from this disorder are in a constant state of worry, making themselves feel even more socially awkward, when it is really their social anxiety that is dictating their thoughts. Even if a person does not show that they are