Social anxiety disorder is a serious medical condition in which the sufferers are struck by both emotional and physical symptoms that are intensive, crippling and chronic. It is vastly different from the general nervouness or uneasiness which many people experience in social life and can be effectively battled with self-help techniques. In contrast, sufferers of social anxiety disorder are over self-conscious to an extreme degree that they develop an excessive fear of being watched and judged, and most of the time such feared situation is just imaginary. Social anxiety disorder is currently affecting approximately 15 million American. Because of its resemblance to the general public nervousness type, many people feel like a self test to help them make sure whether their condition is an anxiety disorder or simply nervousness.
If you are one of these people, you may like to go through the following test and share your results with an anxiety specialist. 1. Check your symptoms: - Are you constantly and extremely fearful of being judged by others? - Are you often concerned that you will be humiliated by what you are doing? - Are you feared that your trembing, sweating or blushings will let out the signs of your anxiety? - Do you realise that your fear is excessive or ungrounded? 2.
Do you experience any of the followings when confronted with a feared situation: - extreme uneasiness - a panic attack, during which you suffer an intense and acute fear which is also accompanied by physical discomforts such as racing heart, shortness in breath, chest pain, dizziness, sweating, trembling, nausea or diarrhea, numbness, cold or hot flashes. - Do you intentionally try to avoid your feared situation as much as you can? - Is your fear an extreme one that it even stops you persuing your daily life? 3. With regard to accompanying symptoms: - Have you changed your sleeping or eating habits recently? - Do you often find life meaningless and your efforts worthless? - Do you often feel sad, depressed or extremely guilty for something? 4. In the past year, have you experienced one of the followings as a result of alcohol or drug abuse: - inability to fulfill work, study or family responsibilities. - dangerous situation, such as driving a car under the influence.
- being arrested. - continued abuse of alcohol or drug despite the problems caused to you or yours. As you can see, the social anxiety disorder self test is designed to assess the physical and emotional symptoms you are suffering, your thinking process with regard to social interaction, as well as whether you also have accompanying symptoms that may complicate the diagnosis of anxiety disorder (such as depression or substance abuse). The results will be more accurate if you answer all questions without trying to hide the truth.
If most of your answers to the tests are positive, it is highly likely that you will need the professional help from a doctor. In fact, there is no need to shy away from the doctors. With the number of the victims today, you can assure yourself that you are just one of the many many cases out there. In the treatment of anxiety disorders, and social anxiety disorders in particular, the role of medical professionals is just as important as the drugs. Copyright (c) 2008 Sandy Adamson.
Are your tired of the cliche deep breathing technique for treating anxiety? If so, you may like to check out the Linden Method. This unique and easy to follow method has not only cured over 100,000 sufferers worldwide, but also are highly regarded by a large number of anxiety specialists.
