Social anxiety disorder is a problem that originates from the fear of making mistakes. The person with SA disorder will have unreasonable fear that he/she is being watched by others and will develop irrational fear of social situations. These people are always self conscious and worried about being criticized by others. People with SA disorder will often avoid being in social situations and if conditions compel them to take part in social events, they would develop an “anticipatory anxiety” probably weeks or even months before the occasion. They live in the fear of something wrong is going to happen. Many people are fully aware of their irrational fear (which is meaningless) but they don’t have the courage to overcome it.
SA disorder is called as “social phobia” which is linked with other type of mental issues like panic disorder or obsessive compulsive disorder. People with social phobia will have problems in interacting with people, and working in front of others. The fear becomes so intense that it seriously interferes with their routine activities and creates problems in relationships. These people are afraid to do even common things like using public toilet or eating in a restaurant etc. They imagine that somebody would criticize them for their behavior or mistakes and avoid such situations.
Causes :
No one factor can be limited to cause social anxiety disorder. It is caused by multiple factors like psychological, social and biological factors. For some people, SA disorder is hereditary and runs in families. It is believed to occur due to abnormal functions in the brain that is responsible for fear or stressful events.
For some people, SA disorder can develop due to embarrassing events in childhood and humiliating events in society during adolescence. Children with this disorder would have suffered and neglected by peers or bullied by others. Children who are over-protected may not have the opportunity to learn proper social skills and in later stage can develop this disorder.