The causes of social phobia

No one single factor gives rise to anxiety disorders such as social phobia, but rather various factors coalesce in the onset of anxiety symptoms.

According to the American Psychiatric Association (2002), social phobia can develop slowly over time, or may develop suddenly after a humiliating situation. 

External factors

Various factors in a person’s environment can contribute to feelings of anxiety and worry.

• Childhood experiences: A child observing an adult responding anxiously in certain social situations may learn certain ways of thinking about and acting in those situations.
• Abuse and bullying in childhood may contribute to the onset of anxiety in later life.
• Negative experiences with social encounters or performance situations throughout ones youth.

Internal factors

Person’s biological makeup (predisposition): Based on twin studies and family studies, there appears to be a biological component contributing to the onset of anxiety disorders like social phobia.

Personality and coping skills: Each person has a different personality and an array of different coping skills that determines how they deal with various situations. These characteristics are partly inherited but are also shaped by ones life experiences, particularly throughout childhood.

Unhelpful thinking: Interpreting or perceiving situations to be threatening, thus triggering an associated stream of unhelpful and negative self-talk.