It is an anxiety disorder in which people worry that they will be evaluated negatively by others and the fear of being disgraced or humiliated in social environments is constant and prominent. Because of this anxiety, one begins to not want to meet people and to avoid places and behaviors where one may encounter them. They think that other people see them as weak, incompetent, and stupid. They avoid speaking, eating, or moving in public in order to avoid embarrassment. Although shyness is considered as shyness, there are clinically significant differences. Many people ask, "Can I do it?" before speaking in public. They worry about "Will I be embarrassed?", but this worry motivates them to prepare and do better. In social phobia, the person shows avoidance behavior. If he cannot escape, he experiences great distress even though he knows that his fear is meaningless.
The lifetime incidence is 2-13%. Although it seems to be more common in women than men in some places, no gender differences were found in patients applying to psychiatric outpatient clinics. It usually starts in adolescence. Rather than heredity, parental model, child-rearing style, and the frequency of the family's involvement in social environments are considered important factors in the development of social phobia in a child. While it can be seen more frequently in people with poor financial status, low education level, and those who have never been married, it can also affect people of all statuses. People who have social phobic individuals among their relatives have a higher risk of being diagnosed. One of the most important factors is deterioration in brain chemistry. A decrease in the amount of serotonin and disruptions in electrical activity have been detected. Psychologically, conditioning has been demonstrated in individuals with traumatic experiences. Example A person who is laughed at because of a mistake he made has the worry that he may make a mistake again and be laughed at when he encounters similar conditions, and shows a feeling of shame and physical changes. Again, the frequency of developing social phobia is higher in children who grew up in overprotective, rejecting families or in families with high expectations from the child.
In Which Situations Can Social Phobia Be Occurred?
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- Phone conversation in public
- Taking part in a small group activity
- Eating in public
- Drinking in public
- Speaking to someone in authority
- Speaking in front of an audience, playing a role
- Going to entertainment
- Working while being watched by others
- Others Writing while being watched by
- Talking on the phone with someone you don't know very well
- Talking face to face with someone you don't know very well
- Encountering strangers
- Using public restrooms
- Entering a room where someone is sitting
- Being the center of attention
- Making an impromptu speech at a meeting
- Being subjected to an aptitude, ability or knowledge test
- Expressing disapproval or disagreement with someone you don't know well
- Looking into the eyes of someone you don't know well
- Presenting a previously prepared report verbally to a group
- Approaching someone for the purpose of a romantic relationship
- Returning a purchased item
- Throwing a party / invitation
- Resisting a persistent salesman (Liebowitz scale)
Symptoms of Social Phobia
When faced with a situation of concern, sweating, hot flushes, facial flushing, shortness of breath, palpitations, feeling of discomfort in the abdomen, need to go to the toilet, tremors, physical symptoms such as tension While experiencing life, at the same time from the mind; Anxiety phrases such as 'I'm embarrassed, I shouldn't make mistakes, I'm inadequate, I should look good' are used. These thoughts bring along avoidance behaviors such as not entering the environment, leaving the environment, not making eye contact, and thinking about irrelevant things.
Treatment
In social phobia, medical treatment (medication) and individual psychotherapy are sometimes used one by one. It is planned according to the patient's condition, sometimes both together. The average duration of medical treatment is 1 year. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is applied in individual psychotherapy. In therapy, recognizing anxieties, the physical symptoms caused by this anxiety, identifying the thoughts when the anxiety is experienced, and methods of coping with the thoughts and physical reactions are discussed.
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