Have your ever met

[signs05]

Have anyone here ever met a social phobic? I mean have you ever been introduced to a person and noticed that this person is suffering from Social phobia?

Social phobia is pretty hard to notice, but for us who have the disorder, we can probably spot it easier, since we use some of the same avoidance techniques etc.

Or are we perhaps too focused on ourselves to notice if the person we meet is also suffering from SP?

Me personally, I think i've met one. I went to this job group interview and this one guy had a real hard time looking at the people he was talking to, and got all ----> ...I didnt notice it at first because I was of course focused on myself but my friend who was with me brought it up and when i thought about it , it made sense. But i dont know.

What say you?

 

[leneylea]

I dont know Ive always felt it is so easy for people to see that i am suffering from SA but now im starting to think that it cant be too easy to spot considering so many people suffer from it yet ive never meet one. I hope its not easy to spot. Then again it could be because we are to wrapped up in ourselves that we wouldnt notice.

 

[Kinetik]

I think it really depends on two things - exactly what type of anxiety we're talking about, and to what degree each individual shows it. I mean, I'm not inept as such (minus a feeling of internal awkwardness), but I am a compulsive avoider. If you met me, I'd be okay with shaking your hand, looking you in the eye, but unless I genuinely liked you, I'd try my damndest to never see you again. I get an uncontrollable urge to get away, to lock myself up alone somewhere. So in my case for example, you probably wouldn't guess I had SA, you'd likely think I was just incredibly anti-social.

Others really do show it openly. That one guy at your work is an example. Blushing, embarrassment, hampered with interaction in general, all that sutff is symptomatic of the more "typical" anxiety we know. But again, that's a totally different type of issue compared to mine. So given that variety alone I think it's safe to say a ton of people suffer from it - from all across the board and all walks of life. And you certainly wouldn't always be able to see it, at least not right away.

 

[Jack-B]

I have met others who have sp/sa.

Some come across as quite confident and show no external signs of anxiety at all, others are more avoidant types, dead silent no eye contact quite obvious.

In general, everyone we meet suffers from anxiety to some extent, we can use this understanding to actually develop a more realistic view of the world and of ourself.

Jack

 

[Chrysta]

I haven't actually seen people and thought they had SP. Some people I see look shy though. As far as knowing people with SP I know a few. My best friend, my step sister, my friend's brother. And I also know people who have anxiety problems that aren't nessecarily SP. My neighbor, my sister, my mom. I think I might be more prone to SP because of my mom but I don't think I got it because she has anxiety problems.