Anxiety

I have always assumed that everyone lived with some level of fear all the time except maybe hired killers, and that it is all just a matter of degree. Social anxiety would be a high level of fear; "normal" people have a relatively low level.

I received a message from the social anxiety institute's mailing list and it included a comment from Dr. Richards who is the director and a former social anxiety sufferer. His findings on the level of fear in "normal" people shocked me, and frankly I have a problem really believing it. I haven't had the chance (probably fear induced lack of chance) to ask any normal people I know what kind of fear they have. If Dr. Richards is correct, it certainly explains why "they" don't understand us SAD people and why we don't understand "them".

I am curious to hear what other social anxiety people think about this subject.

"From Dr. Richards:

A Possible Reason Why it is So Hard for Other People to Understand Social Anxiety...

Recently, I was having a first appointment with a young woman from another state who had social anxiety.  She and her mother had driven to Phoenix to see me.  The diagnostic appointment was moving along fine, when the mother looked at me and said,

"I try so hard to understand what my daughter is saying.  But I've only been afraid two times in my life, and one of those times was when my husband held a knife to my throat and threatened to kill me."

I was floored.  The daughter looked at me with raised eyebrows, we exchanged glances, and I thought to myself: "Can this be real?  This woman has only felt fear twice in her life?"

I asked the mother again if that is what she meant.  She thought about it and said "yes". I was still surprised.

I looked at the daughter and said,  "Well, people with social anxiety feel that level of fear and anxiety almost every day of their lives." The daughter's eyes grew wider and she began shaking her head in agreement.  "Yeah, mom," she said, "didn't you know I felt afraid to do those things every day of my life?"

This incident motivated me to start asking people who did not have social anxiety:  "How many times in your life have you felt really fearful?  Really afraid?  We're not talking about butterflies in the stomach or a slight case of nerves.  We're talking about fearing something."

The answers I received to this question from people who did not have social anxiety surprised me greatly.

The average answer people gave me was about seven times.

I said to people,  "Do you mean you have only felt deeply afraid or fearful seven times in your whole life?" and people would respond affirmatively.

This dumbfounded me, because those of us who have social anxiety are fearful almost every day of our lives if we are engaged in life and have to meet new challenges because of school, work, or other social activities.

Perhaps that is the reason other professionals, including psychologists and medical doctors, do not really understand social anxiety disorder. Not only have they never had it, they have never experienced the depth of the emotional, gut-wrenching fear and dread that occurs on a daily basis.

I could tell you horror stories from my own life, when the fear and dread would overtake my body and brain and I could not function.  I was simply too afraid.

This is the hallmark of social anxiety: the heart-pounding fear and dreadful anticipation of social situations and events (things that other people are simply not bothered by).  People without social anxiety can typically tell you a half dozen instances in their lives when they were really fearful.  Those of us with social anxiety could tell them a half dozen instances in our lives on almost a daily basis that bring on fear.

This is one thing that people without social anxiety do not understand.

A second reason is that they cannot "see" the social anxiety or deeply-felt anxiety and fear in us -- we are very good at not wanting other people to see the fear in us.  We could say we are very good "hiders".  To those of you with social anxiety: More than hope exists for overcoming this traumatic disorder. People can and do overcome social anxiety. We have dozens of people currently at SAI who are in the process of doing this right now.  Don't let anyone tell you that you have to live with social anxiety for the rest of your life.  Don't let anything get in the way of getting better."

Copyright © 2008, The Social Anxiety Institute, Inc.
Thomas A. Richards, Ph.D., Psychologist/Director, SAI

My Comments From: tutik Sep 01 2008, 11:47 pm Yes is true that not all the people understand what we have going throw in live.some very selfish some realy cannot see.But what we have to do is,we have to let them know that we are very strong people and we are very confident to ourself to not let people to look down on us.And don't be scared to them we done nothing wrong.So try to not give up on yourself u still have us that always support u any time ok.So work hard.we are in your site. From: Bagpuss May 04 2008, 2:50 am Those are some really good points, cheers Mr Dancingtallman. I agree people seriously underestimate the degree of fear we suffer from. The second point is also very important. I know that many people have underestimated my anxiety because I hide/internalise it very well. I've been going through absolute misery with my benefits for almost 2 years now, because the doctor evaluating me didn't feel as though I 'looked mentally ill'. Nice to know the people in charge of our lives are so knowledgeable. From: hatchedbird May 02 2008, 10:08 am I'm on Dr. Richards' mailing list too. I wish there was a group in my area! I don't have the $ to fly to Texas or wherever they're located.  Anyway, I find this very hard to believe too, dancingtallman. I mean...how could someone only be afraid a few times in their entire lives? That makes no sense to me. But it is very interesting, thanks for posting it.  Question: have you tried the audio CDs? I couldn't really get into the habit of listening to them.   From: prism May 02 2008, 3:14 am Thank you for putting this up. I found it very interesting and informative.