. - Social Anxiety.

26th January 2012

Post reblogged from And at once I knew, I was not magnificent with 11 notes

Social Anxiety.

“Social anxiety is, after depression and alcoholism, the third most common psychiatric illness in the United States. It is a disease that can hit anyone, and although doctors now know how to treat it successfully, most people who suffer from it never get any treatment at all. They just suffer.

Their suffering goes far beyond the discomfort of ordinary nervousness in meeting new people or bashfulness in public situations. People with social anxiety may experience persistent terror in social or performance situations that provokes relentless, crippling anxiety. The fear is so great that it interferes with their normal routines at school, work, and in social activities. They are perfectly aware the fear is abnormal or irrational, but this knowledge doesn’t help: the fear persists, uncontrollable. Attending a social gathering, giving a talk in front of a group, eating in public, even, strange as it may seem, writing in public can create a heart-stopping terror impossible to overcome.

No, this is not ordinary shyness; it is a disabling illness whose cause is poorly understood.”

I wish people understood this better. It’s not just shyness.

Source: s3psis