social anxiety

Social anxiety is a psychiatric disorder that affects 13% of the population. It involves overwhelming anxiety and excessive self-consciousness in everyday social situations. People living with this condition have a persistent fear of being watched and criticized by others. They feel that others are constantly waiting for them to mess up, thus humiliating themselves by their own actions. It may interfere with their work, school, social life, and other activities. Social anxiety differs from shyness in that people with this disorder often avoid some social situations all-together. Physical symptoms of social anxiety include blushing, rapid heartbeat, sweating, trembling, muscle tension, shaky voice, and nausea.
(This information on Social Anxiety Disorder was obtained from www.wikipedia.com.)

A Day In The Life of a Person with Social Anxiety

Little Ed's teacher just informed his class they would have oral presentations due that Friday. This was on a Monday morning.The rest of the day Ed was shaking and cold, worring about Friday and having to give an oral speech to his classmates. All week he had been dreading this day, Friday. Friday had finally come and as Ed watched the others before him give their speeches, he was trembling and had muscle tension and nausea.When his turn came, his face turned bright red as he took center stage. All eyes were on him as he proceeded with his speech. All through the speech, his voice was shaky. Afterwards, everyone clapped and the teacher gave him praise. But, Little Ed couldn't stop worrying aout what everyone had thought of him when he had given his speech.

369👍 106👎