Social anxiety is not always obvious. The person laughing the loudest in a crowd of admirers may be suffering from it. So is the person who’s sitting by himself and looking around like he has misgivings about the happiness of the people around him. So, what characterizes social anxiety? This type of anxiety has several levels, ranging from mild to extreme.
Mild Social Anxiety
Social anxiety is not always about being a loner or refusing to interact with others. In fact, if the person’s job requires him to be pleasant to customers or clients, he may still do well in terms of interaction. He acts so well that no one would even guess that he has social anxiety disorder.
The anxiety often manifests when he refuses to accommodate strangers and acquaintances during his private time. It may be because he wants to be alone, or it may be because he doesn’t think the others would enjoy his company.
Whenever he tries to really connect with others and gets rebuffed, like when a joke falls flat, he sees that incident as a rejection of his efforts to be friendly. No one really knows he’s suffering from social anxiety because he can still interact with others, but his demeanor may be cold and aloof. He keeps friends at a distance and would not really make effort to socialize unless he really has to.
Moderate Social Anxiety
When a person tries too hard to fit in, tries too hard to look like he’s having fun and gets depressed when it seems like people don’t really include him in social events or in conversation, he may be suffering from social anxiety. Like the first type, he can’t relax. He can’t drop his guard because he thinks people wouldn’t like him if he were to really be himself.
A person who’s clingy and insecure may show this kind of social anxiety. The trouble is that many individuals can actually sense when someone is being fake. The person himself could sense that some of his so-called friends call him creepy, but he doesn’t know what else he has to do to get their approval. He may know that he’s not welcome, yet he tries to make himself adapt, even if he is secretly dreading that he may be incapable of real friendship.
Extreme Social Anxiety
The thought of approaching others make a person with extreme social anxiety physically sick. This kind of anxiety can be deeply rooted and caused by a childhood trauma. His behavior in a group situation is awkward at best. Most of the time, he will leave early just to avoid interacting with others.
The common thing among these social anxiety types is the belief that the worst thing could happen in a social situation and the main cause may be their inability to interact well with others. There’s the constant worry about rejection, and the inability to speak their mind for fear of saying something wrong. What’s the worst that could happen when a person fails in a social interaction? A person with social anxiety can think of so many scenarios that they believe are inevitable.
back to Summary of Anxiety Disorders
