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Why are we so Socially Anxious?
Over the years, many people argue why we are so socially anxious. Some say that people get self-conscious or nervous on occasion, such as when giving a speech or interviewing for new employment. Nevertheless, social anxiety goes beyond occasional nerves or shyness. Social anxiety entails intense fear of particular social circumstances specifically that remain unfamiliar (Glue et al. 1303). Such occurrences bring about increased levels of social anxiety among numerous individuals in society. Social anxious among people make them go to some limits to prevent such situations. Social anxiety involves the fear of scrutiny, judgement or public embarrassment from others. People develop social anxiety when they become afraid of others thinking wrongly of them or having perceptions that they might fail to compare to other individuals perceived as perfect in society. Despite such arguments, people have become socially anxious due to genetic aspects but promoted by environmental factors. The research argues that genetic elements have made people so socially anxious.
What Causes Social Anxious
Scientific evidence has not established the exact cause of social anxious among people, but genetics plays a huge role in the cause of the disorder. Moreover, genetic also causes social anxiousness due to the environmental conditions that trigger or rather trigger the anxiety (Kawakami, David & Kurt 10). Genes play a vital role over time despite environmental aspects matter in the short-term into social anxiety. Previous studies demonstrate high heritability of long-term threat of individual developing social anxiousness. In this case, despite environmental issues causing social anxiety, genetics remains the critical cause. Social anxious have an earlier onset among individual; hence if someone does not develop such a disorder at the beginning of an adolescent, it does not improve after mid-twenties and above.
When scholars analyze the development of social anxiousness, the threat remains strongly influenced through genetic aspects because personality characters that predispose an individual to social anxiousness like low emotional or introversion stability remain influenced by genetics (Lazarov, Rany & Yair 283). For this reason, if someone has such characteristics, the threat of developing social anxiousness remains exceptionally high. Nevertheless, the environmental aspects play a role if such an individual would develop the disorder. Additionally, the events that influence social anxiety among individuals in their twenties have minimal effect in the thirties, and the environmental aspects have a broad impact in the short-term. The genetic elements contribute to the persistence of social anxiousness among individuals, while ecological factors contribute to change. For this reason, genetics remains the leading cause of social anxiousness because it remains persistent while environmental aspects would only affect an individual for a short period and end.
Heritability involves the proportion of variation in a phenotype caused by genetic variation among persons. Therefore, if a parent or both have social anxiety, then the children remain at a higher risk of developing the disorder no matter the environmental aspects available. Additionally, some people argue that besides genetics and environmental aspects causing social anxious some develop the disorder through learning especially children learn social anxiousness by undergoing through certain traumatic events in life (Maoz et al. 123). In this case, such events might not cause the disorder immediately but cause the disorder later in life. Scholars have also established that some individual has become social anxious through observational learning. In this perspective, some person witnesses others in a traumatic social situation hence makes them more vulnerable to developing the disorder later in life. Lastly, some develop the disorder through the transfer of information. In this perspective, socially anxious and fearful parents transfer the anxiousness to their children verbally or non-verbally about numerous dangerous social circumstances.
Some scholars also argue that genetics is not the only cause of increased levels of social anxiousness among individuals. Still, upbringing also influences the likelihood of an individual developing social anxiety. In this perspective, parents do not expose their children to more social circumstances as a child hence prevents them from developing appropriate social skills that enable them to overcome various situations that cause social anxiety. Moreover, those children with an inadequate attachment with their primary caregiver have a higher threat of developing social anxiousness later in life hence upbringing plays a huge role in the process (Prizant-Passal, Tomer & Idan 222). Some social scholars have also determined that some social aspects contribute to the increased levels of social anxious witnessed among individuals in modern society. Some of these societal aspects include growing up in a given culture with a robust collective orientation.
Some of the other aspects that trigger the cause of social anxiety involve brain structure. In this case, the stem of the brain that controls an individual’s breathing and heart rate, the limbic system that influences the anxiety and mood of an individual, motor cortex that controls the muscles and prefrontal cortex that assists in appraising danger and threat determine the level of social anxiousness in a person. Research indicates that individual with social anxiety issues experiences increased flow of blood in their amygdale a section of the limbic system responsible for fear in a person (Sevinç & Ad Backus 1). On the other hand, those persons without the disorder only have increased flow of blood in the cerebral cortex, a region with the responsibility to evaluate and think when socializing in public. Such evidence shows that the brain of individuals with social anxiousness reacts differently from those without the disorder. Another indicator of social anxious involves imbalances of neurotransmitters that help in transmitting signals in the brain.
Symptoms of Social Anxiety
Social anxiety has both physical and emotional symptoms and signs. Emotional signs include but not limited to anxiety over daily activities and extreme self-consciousness. In this case, people that worry about every in their lives might have a disorder without their knowledge. Intense worries that last for long before the coming of a given social situation (Sevinç, & Ad Backus 1). Increased levels of fear of judgement from others and society is another emotional sign of social anxiety in persons. Consequently, fears of embarrassment or humiliation over nothing form part of the illustrations of social anxiety. The physical signs include but not limited to blushing, breath shortness, upset stomach, shaking, and tightness in the chest, sweating and dizziness. On the other hand, behavioural signs also demonstrate social anxiety among individuals. Such signs include avoiding social circumstances to a level that limits someone’s activities or life. Individual avoiding others by hiding on backgrounds or drinking before a social situation to soothe nerves is a behavioural sign of social anxiety.
Treatment of Social Anxious
Research shows the availability of many kinds of treatment for social anxiety. Treatment differs among individuals. In this case, some individuals need only one type of treatment, while others require a combination of more than one type of treatment (Maoz et al. 125). Some physicians refer individuals to mental health providers for various types of treatment. Some of the treatments include cognitive behavioural therapy that assists individuals to learn how to control anxiety by breathing and relaxation, and how to replace various negative thoughts with better ones. The other one is exposure therapy that assists people to encounter social situations gradually instead of avoiding and running away from them (Maoz et al. 125). Group therapy is another form of treatment for social anxiety that assists people in learning social techniques and skills to interact with other individuals under certain social settings. Besides, individuals with social anxiousness issues participating together help them feel less alone. Other treatment includes avoiding caffeine from foods like soda, chocolate, and coffee that increase anxiety and sleeping enough. Some healthcare providers prescribe drugs if therapy fails.
Conclusion
People have become extremely social anxious in modern society. Many scholars have indicated that people have developed such a disorder due to environmental aspects that promote anxiety. Still, others have stated that people acquire anxiety disorder through observations and learning. Most of the available evidence shows that environmental issues have a short-term influence on social anxiety disorder among individuals. Therefore, the research concludes that people have become so socially anxious because of genetic factors supported by environmental aspects.
Work Cited
Glue, Paul, et al. “Ketamine’s dose-related effects on anxiety symptoms in patients with treatment-refractory anxiety disorders.” Journal of Psychopharmacology 31.10 (2017): 1302-1305.
Kawakami, Kerry, David M. Amodio, and Kurt Hugenberg. “Intergroup perception and cognition: An integrative framework for understanding the causes and consequences of social categorization.” Advances in experimental social psychology. Vol. 55. Academic Press, 2017. 1-80.
Lazarov, Amit, Rany Abend, and Yair Bar-Haim. “Social anxiety is related to increased dwell time on socially threatening faces.” Journal of Affective Disorders 193 (2016): 282-288.
Maoz, Keren, et al. “Angry-happy interpretations of ambiguous faces in social anxiety disorder.” Psychiatry Research 241 (2016): 122-127.
Prizant-Passal, Shiri, Tomer Shechner, and Idan M. Aderka. “Social anxiety and internet use–A meta-analysis: What do we know? What are we missing?.” Computers in Human Behavior 62 (2016): 221-229.
Sevinç, Yeşim, and Ad Backus. “Anxiety, language use and linguistic competence in an immigrant context: A vicious circle?.” International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (2017).