Give it a title

[Scottish_Player]

Do you think it makes things worse by tagging yourself with a title such as SA/SP and all the other titles for diffrent things? could it not just be that we are diffrent and thats that.

When i came on the net i started reading about SA and slowly but surely i found my SA getting worse becuase i found out it had a name and then i read more about it and then i slowly started to fit into the catergory more and more and then blamed somthings in my life on SA.

I do recognise there is a diffrence between SA and just shyness and i suppse we have to differintiate in some kind of way one from the other but i hope someone sees my point here of what iam trying to get at.

 

[sabbath92001]

Do you think it makes things worse by tagging yourself with a title such as SA/SP and all the other titles for diffrent things? could it not just be that we are diffrent and thats that.

When i came on the net i started reading about SA and slowly but surely i found my SA getting worse becuase i found out it had a name and then i read more about it and then i slowly started to fit into the catergory more and more and then blamed somthings in my life on SA.

I do recognise there is a diffrence between SA and just shyness and i suppse we have to differintiate in some kind of way one from the other but i hope someone sees my point here of what iam trying to get at.

I voted no.

I do understand what you're saying. When we find out about Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) we read about our symptoms and symptoms that others have that we don't. Then we start worrying if we will start having different symptoms now that we know about it. Without a guide we can easily get worse.

But it's better to know. Ignorance may be bliss, but we were going thru hell before we found out we had SAD. By knowing we just enter a different level of hell because nothing we try gets rid of it.

When I first discovered I had SAD, instead of just depression, I was excited and motivated because I thought it would only be a matter of time before I had treatment. I tried a CBT group run by college students but that didn't help. I tried Dr Richards CBT tapes and kept getting worse.

Finally I found a treatment that doesn't depend on controlling, changing, or challenging my thoughts. I learned that I was taking my thoughts and feelings literally. By taking sides in the war inside my brain I had a vested interest in who won. But by being a spectator I can watch the battle with detachment, indifference, even curiosity.

So it really depends on your perspective. Is SAD, depression, OCD, PTSD, life, etc. a curse? Or is it an opportunity to overcome and prevail?

 

[dzerklis]

When I first discovered I had SAD, instead of just depression, I was excited and motivated because I thought it would only be a matter of time before I had treatment.

it was like that for me too, later i realized it will be very hard to change things..

 

[ash_2001]

Yes.

Number one - there's a stigma attached to all social illnesses.

Secondly, hearing this from your doctor's lips somehow suddenly makes it official, as if written in stone. Because here you were all this time thinking that maybe you're just fooling yourself and that you're "normal"... and then you hear it.

Thirdly, hypochondria surely doesn't help much now, does it?