When does Social Anxiety occur? Who is affected?

WHEN DOES SOCIAL ANXIETY OCCUR? WHO IS AFFECTED?

Approximately 15 million American adults have SAD. Social anxiety disorder is the second most common anxiety disorder diagnosed (ADAA, 2016). Social anxiety can affect anyone at any time of their life. In a study looking at the age-of-onset distributions and lifetime prevalence of mental health disorders, it was found that about half of all Americans will meet the criteria for a mental disorder some time in their lives, with a prevalence of 28.8% of anxiety disorders, although they may not need clinical treatment. The prevalence of social anxiety is 12.1%, the third most prevalent lifetime disorder after major depressive disorder and alcohol abuse. The median age of onset for social anxiety disorder was 13 years (Kessler, et al., 2005). So SAD often starts when a person is young. Symptoms of a person who has or is getting social anxiety are: blushing, sweating, shaking, rapid heartbeat, mind goes blank, feeling sick, rigid posture, little to no eye contact, finding it scary or difficult to be with people they don't know, feeling embarrassed and awkward, afraid that people will judge them, staying away from places where people would be. SAD can run in families but no one knows why some members have it and some don't. Researchers think that misreading other people's behaviors has something to do with causing or worsening SAD. This could be because the person has undeveloped social skills. With more research, we can find better treatments to help people with SAD. (NIMH, 2016)