Many people are concerned and slightly apprehensive when they are in social situations that may be unfamiliar to them or where they may need to perform in front of others. For some people, however, this concern and apprehension is of sufficient high intensity and severity and such individuals may be suffering with social phobia, also known as social anxiety disorder.
Social phobia is an anxiety disorder, where the anxiety is triggered by thoughts and perceptions surrounding social and performance situations. The person with social phobia worries excessively:
- that others may be scrutinising them for the behaviours;
- about what others might think of them,
- about embarrassing themselves in front of others, and/or
- about being rejected, humiliated, or negatively evaluated by others.
The distressing factor for these individuals is that they ‘crave’ and ‘desire’ social contact. Although they may engage in social situations, they over-value the opinions of others and, therefore, their fear of humiliation and criticism often keeps them isolated. They fear being in situations where they may be scrutinised by others and, when in these situations, are faced with ruminative and unhelpful self-talk (e.g. “I don’t want to make a fool of myself”) and concern that such evaluation by others will be negative. As a consequence, they also experience high levels of physical distress.
Importantly, the things that the person fears (e.g. “I’ll say something stupid and others will laugh at me”) may not happen, but the person worries excessively that they might happen or that they may have happened and they believe it to be true.
Chris finds social situations stressful
Chris is a 29-year-old accountant who finds it an effort to attend social functions as he worries constantly that he will have nothing interesting to say and that others will find him “dry” and “unintelligent”. Chris avoids these situations as much as possible, which has an impact on his work relationships, networking possibilities, and his social life. He has never had many close friends and the few close friends he has, have stopped phoning him up to do things, as on 9/10 times he would make an excuse to not go. He is saddened by this as, as he still desperately wants to maintain friendships and meet new people. If he does go out, Chris drinks a number of beers before leaving the house and ensures that he has a drink in his hand at all times. He chooses to stand on the edge of groups and if he is asked a question, he will answer it as briefly as possible, limit eye contact with the person, and not ask a question in return.
After these situations, Chris spends days ruminating about the situation, “I can’t believe I said that!”; “Sam will probably think I’m too stupid to hold up a conversation”; “I’m sure that they saw my shaking like a leaf! I bet that’s why they were laughing when I walked up to the group.”
At work, Chris spends most of his time in his office. He eats privately, in his office, as he feels excessively anxious and self-conscious in situations where others may be watching him.
In summary, Chris’s extreme self-consciousness and his fear of being evaluated negatively by others, results in him missing many opportunities to socialise with others. This results in him being alone most of the time, even though he would like to be around others.
Each person with social phobia has a unique set of social or performance situations that may lead to the experience of anxiety. The situations may be few and specific (as in circumscribed social phobia) or more general (as in generalised social phobia). The may include:
- Any type of social situations, encounters, or associations;
- Meeting people who hold positions of authority (including employers and lecturers);
- Doing things in situations where others may be able to observe the person (e.g. eating or writing in public);
- Being introduced to others;
- Being the centre of attention;
- Initiating or maintaining conversation in social or group situations (e.g. at parties or informal work functions);
- Arriving late for a meeting or lecture;
- Participating in sporting activities;
- Talking on the telephone; and
- Speaking in formal social situations (e.g. work meetings; university lectures; addressing an audience; making a speech at a wedding).
