How Severe Would You Say this Anxiety is?

[DanielLewis]

I'm experiencing social anxiety or shyness. I'm not sure which it is, but I tend to feel very uncomfortable in social situations. For example, at my college class everyone had to introduce themselves. I got extremely nervous about this and I became very self-conscious. A feeling of inferiority came over me as I saw others introduce themselves well, sometimes with enthusiasm and humor. When it came my turn, I found myself coming across as boring, without much emotion, and unnatural. I could muster up words, but just barely and without much personal expression. In the same class, we divided into groups to chat and get to know each more. Other people in my group were talking a lot, having fun, and laughing, while I was the quiet, awkward guy. I wanted to say more, as I always do, but I couldn't seem to think of anything to say. I was listening to others talk but was only smiling now and then and not being very responsive to what others were saying. When I eventually decided to speak up, I could tell others in the group didn't care much about what I was saying. One guy I looked at looked away while I was talking. No one really responded to what I said, which was, again, boring.

The anxiety doesn't stop here. I feel it's very severe at times. Sometimes in class I'll be so critical about how others perceive me that I'll wonder if where I'm looking at is normal - like if I'm staring at a wall, the teacher, or down at my notebook. It's weird, I know. Anyone else experience this? I'd like to think I'm not that weird and that it's more common among those with social anxiety. Anyway, I've been able to control this better at times when I really force myself to not think negative thoughts that put me into that state of mind.

When I go to public places, especially college, I tend to start to feel depressed and anxious seeing other people with friends socializing while I go about my daily business alone. I have no friends, but I am making an effort to make some. I try to talk to people but I can't seem to truly express myself emotionally, verbally, non-verbally, to make a connection with anyone. Not knowing what to say to people makes it all the worse. Usually it takes great effort for me to come up with something to say and, when and if I do, it's just boring most of the time; like logic-based and not a funny story, joke, or something interesting. I don't know how to use humor anymore and I, myself, can't remember the last time I genuinely laughed with others.

I have no problem going to public places like the grocery store, mall, etc., even alone. That doesn't really make me anxious. It's only specifically when I have to interact with another person. So, if I'm ordering food at a restaurant, I can even get a feeling of fear as I'm talking to the cashier or waitress. The same overwhelming fear hits me where I work as well sometimes when a coworker or boss says something to me. I can tell others can see the fear or sense something is wrong with me by the way they look at me, even though I try to hide it. I think it really comes through my eyes.

I don't have physical panic attacks that cause me to have to remove myself from social situations. I don't get like sweaty palms or faint or anything. I just have negative emotions, like fear and nervousness, and a mind that seemingly can't come up with words to say and socialize naturally with people. The negative emotions appear more and intensify when I find myself not being the more social person I want to be. Also, I don't tend to avoid social situations just because I fear them, especially if it needs to be done. For example, I walked into a few businesses today and spoke to the managers about a job opening. I go to job interviews, class, public places by myself. I even have been smiling at random strangers as I pass by or just saying "Hi" just to try to get better.

What I believe has caused this anxiety is having no close relationships with anyone. I have no friends, I don't feel a connection with any of my family members, etc. It's bad. This is probably why I lost my sense of self and don't really seem to know how to express myself anymore. It's been so long since I've been connected with someone to do so. From this also comes a lack of practice. While most others talk for at least a couple hours a day with people, I talk probably, on most days, 20-30 minutes. And the major sticking point for me seems to be not knowing what to say to people. I think if I had the words to say I could put the emotion and expression of myself into it. I literally just can't seem to think of things to say in any social situation, but sometimes I do filter myself; I'll have something to say, but I'll choose not to, thinking it's too boring, short like a one-word comment, or doesn't add much to the conversation. I've wondered if I could be a lot more social just by thinking of nothing at all for a day - no thoughts about what others think of me, no thoughts of trying to come up with something to say - and seeing if my subconscious could come up with things and I wouldn't filter any of it. What would happen? Would an innate social ability, that isn't inhibited by all the thinking, come out of me? According to one article I read about shyness, this is the way to do it, but I haven't fully done this yet.

Anyway, I'd like to hear your opinion of how severe this anxiety or shyness is for me, like 1-10 or something. How does it compare to you? Can you relate to any of these experiences?

 

[squidgee]

I think I relate a lot to what you just said, especially with the introductions at the start of college classes. To me, it seems like you have mild to moderate social anxiety, though of course you should always go to a medical professional to make an official diagnosis.

It's a good thing though that you don't tend to avoid social situations, and it seems like you're willing to be proactive about it all. So if you haven't already, it might be a good idea to consult a GP/counselor/psychologist etc.

I'm not sure if this helps, but when I find myself in conversations with other uni students I don't know, 90% of the time, the first topic that's brought up is subject choices and majors. I then ask a few questions branching off their responses, such as how they're finding certain subjects, or their career ambitions. Hopefully, within their response (and yours), you can find some common ground you can both expand on, or ask further questions if you're feeling inquisitive about something they brought up. At least, this has been my strategy so far during the semester.

 

[Kiwong]

moderate to severe based on the situation I am in.

 

[defiance]

honestly i don't even know how to express it in words. It is really difficult. When will it get better

 

[lina1202]

I can relate to almost everything you say. You don't mention how long you've felt this way for but I've always struggled with "not knowing what to say" for about 10 years now. It's been a constant thought in the back of my mind, and nothing I tried could help. This has also caused me to have severe and constant depression. I hide it well from everyone though.
For the past year though, I have made a huge progress that I did not believe was ever possible. And you are on the right track when you say if there were no negative thoughts you would be able to talk and socialize freely with people.
But you can't force these thoughts out of your head. Accept that they are there, but don't judge that it is a bad or negative thought...because thought is just thought. It has no meaning to what is real and present. All that matters is what is happening in the moment, and the automatic thoughts running through your mind are just fodder. It doesn't mean anything about you, it doesn't mean you are boring.

Have you looked into cognitive behavourial therapy or mindfulness? I've tried both and they are about the only things that make sense to me.
I have so much to say about thought and overcoming the fear etc. because what you described has been an ongoing fight in my mind for the past several years.

Feel free to PM me if you wanna chat about it I really believe now (where I didn't before!) that social anxiety can be beaten and the stigma attached to it should be destroyed once and for all.

 

[Zooman]

I'm experiencing social anxiety or shyness. I'm not sure which it is, but I tend to feel very uncomfortable in social situations. For example, at my college class everyone had to introduce themselves. I got extremely nervous about this and I became very self-conscious. A feeling of inferiority came over me as I saw others introduce themselves well, sometimes with enthusiasm and humor. When it came my turn, I found myself coming across as boring, without much emotion, and unnatural. I could muster up words, but just barely and without much personal expression. In the same class, we divided into groups to chat and get to know each more. Other people in my group were talking a lot, having fun, and laughing, while I was the quiet, awkward guy. I wanted to say more, as I always do, but I couldn't seem to think of anything to say. I was listening to others talk but was only smiling now and then and not being very responsive to what others were saying. When I eventually decided to speak up, I could tell others in the group didn't care much about what I was saying. One guy I looked at looked away while I was talking. No one really responded to what I said, which was, again, boring.

The anxiety doesn't stop here. I feel it's very severe at times. Sometimes in class I'll be so critical about how others perceive me that I'll wonder if where I'm looking at is normal - like if I'm staring at a wall, the teacher, or down at my notebook. It's weird, I know. Anyone else experience this? I'd like to think I'm not that weird and that it's more common among those with social anxiety. Anyway, I've been able to control this better at times when I really force myself to not think negative thoughts that put me into that state of mind.

When I go to public places, especially college, I tend to start to feel depressed and anxious seeing other people with friends socializing while I go about my daily business alone. I have no friends, but I am making an effort to make some. I try to talk to people but I can't seem to truly express myself emotionally, verbally, non-verbally, to make a connection with anyone. Not knowing what to say to people makes it all the worse. Usually it takes great effort for me to come up with something to say and, when and if I do, it's just boring most of the time; like logic-based and not a funny story, joke, or something interesting. I don't know how to use humor anymore and I, myself, can't remember the last time I genuinely laughed with others.

I have no problem going to public places like the grocery store, mall, etc., even alone. That doesn't really make me anxious. It's only specifically when I have to interact with another person. So, if I'm ordering food at a restaurant, I can even get a feeling of fear as I'm talking to the cashier or waitress. The same overwhelming fear hits me where I work as well sometimes when a coworker or boss says something to me. I can tell others can see the fear or sense something is wrong with me by the way they look at me, even though I try to hide it. I think it really comes through my eyes.

I don't have physical panic attacks that cause me to have to remove myself from social situations. I don't get like sweaty palms or faint or anything. I just have negative emotions, like fear and nervousness, and a mind that seemingly can't come up with words to say and socialize naturally with people. The negative emotions appear more and intensify when I find myself not being the more social person I want to be. Also, I don't tend to avoid social situations just because I fear them, especially if it needs to be done. For example, I walked into a few businesses today and spoke to the managers about a job opening. I go to job interviews, class, public places by myself. I even have been smiling at random strangers as I pass by or just saying "Hi" just to try to get better.

What I believe has caused this anxiety is having no close relationships with anyone. I have no friends, I don't feel a connection with any of my family members, etc. It's bad. This is probably why I lost my sense of self and don't really seem to know how to express myself anymore. It's been so long since I've been connected with someone to do so. From this also comes a lack of practice. While most others talk for at least a couple hours a day with people, I talk probably, on most days, 20-30 minutes. And the major sticking point for me seems to be not knowing what to say to people. I think if I had the words to say I could put the emotion and expression of myself into it. I literally just can't seem to think of things to say in any social situation, but sometimes I do filter myself; I'll have something to say, but I'll choose not to, thinking it's too boring, short like a one-word comment, or doesn't add much to the conversation. I've wondered if I could be a lot more social just by thinking of nothing at all for a day - no thoughts about what others think of me, no thoughts of trying to come up with something to say - and seeing if my subconscious could come up with things and I wouldn't filter any of it. What would happen? Would an innate social ability, that isn't inhibited by all the thinking, come out of me? According to one article I read about shyness, this is the way to do it, but I haven't fully done this yet.

Anyway, I'd like to hear your opinion of how severe this anxiety or shyness is for me, like 1-10 or something. How does it compare to you? Can you relate to any of these experiences?

I relate so much that I was literally about to stop reading because I knew exactly what you were going to say before even reading all of your post lol. Don't worry I read your post though lol. You wanna know how badly I relate? Last semester I decided to try to take a required New Student Experience class at my community college. The first day we had to introduce ourselves and say one thing that we enjoyed and made us unique. Of course my heart was pounding out of my chest and my mind was blank, so when it came to my turn I just introduced myself and then said idk. My teacher (who I could tell was an ******* literally in the first 2 minutes of class) then asked me if I was a boring person. I flipped when she said that and started asking if "listening to music" or "playing sports" were somehow unique (it's what some of the other people before me said lol) and it was pretty obvious i was worked up. Some students actually started to back me up a little and said that college was meant to be a time to learn about yourself, etc... the teacher then responded saying that she thought it was weird for someone not to know about themselves by now, etc... Anyways after the class was dismissed I dropped it. I knew i wasn't going to be able to deal with that teacher without losing my sanity. I really wish I had let my teacher have it before I dropped the class but whatever..I spoke up and i'm proud of that, though I feel like I kinda just attacked my classmates by accident in a way... Anways I bet to god that bitch knew why I wasn't in her class the next day. You wanna know the worst part? Apparently she majored in psychology in college yet she seemed like such an ignorant person. So yeah man, i totally get it. Anxiety ****ing sucks. Literally everything you wrote in your post I understand. I'm 20 years old and starting my first semester in college right now. Every other time I took a class I would literally drop it before the first week ended. This is now my 3rd week so far for this semester and i'm taking 3 classes, so I guess i'm setting a record for myself. Btw it is true that your face says a lot. If you haven't taken psychology then I highly suggest you listen to the lectures from intro to psychology on yale open courses. It is free and super interesting. You get to hear lecture recordings from a intro to psychology class at yale and i'll tell you I learned A LOT from it. For example your face really does show a lot about the way you feel. It is actually really hard for example to fake a smile. It's all in the eyes. I forget all the facts but it is a pretty low % of people who can actually fake a smile. Now think about having SA, idk about you but i'm not a very happy person when I'm anxious. As you can imagine my smiles don't look very genuine regardless of how hard I try. I imagine that scares off a fair amount of people. Also on the point about not knowing what to say, that is a common symptom of anxiety. When you become anxious it is observed that the blood flow from your pre-frontal cortex (the part of the brain responsible for "thinking") goes to your Amygdala. The amygdala is basically the primitive part of your brain that is responsible for the "fight or flight" response. So literally, when you have anxiety you CAN'T think! It isn't your fault! Our brains are just ****ed up. I really hope that science advances enough soon that anxiety can be fixed because anxiety is obviously a disease. Want proof that it is a disease? It it pretty much common knowledge these days that anxiety is inherited and it is thought to be a dominant gene. I'm not a geneticist so I can't go too far in detail but I'm 100% certain anxiety is nature, not nurture. I believe "nurture" does affect how you will react in life to the anxiety genotype to some extent but like I said I also believe anxiety is 100% inherited. I could go into more detail on why I have this certainty but that would require a whole other post. If you want to hear why i'd be more than willing to post my reasons though.

 

[PugofCrydee]

So literally, when you have anxiety you CAN'T think! It isn't your fault! Our brains are just ****ed up.

While I agree with you in part about the brain being 'amygdala hijacked', it has been proven - and I have personally experienced the fact that you CAN fight back.

SA in general is a faulty thinking process. It is mostly a LEARNED process.
You can unlearn it. It is difficult, it takes time, patience and effort.

Having said that, I think it would be quite difficult and maybe near on impossible to totally unlearn it completely. But you CAN unlearn the faulty thinking process and improve your SA/lessen the severity.

It is not totally out of our control. :thumbup:

 

[Zooman]

While I agree with you in part about the brain being 'amygdala hijacked', it has been proven - and I have personally experienced the fact that you CAN fight back.

SA in general is a faulty thinking process. It is mostly a LEARNED process.
You can unlearn it. It is difficult, it takes time, patience and effort.

Having said that, I think it would be quite difficult and maybe near on impossible to totally unlearn it completely. But you CAN unlearn the faulty thinking process and improve your SA/lessen the severity.

It is not totally out of our control. :thumbup:

The only thing that I could imagine you are referring to is CBT. I agree SA is learned but I also think it is genetic and once the triggers happen your brain just goes it's natural genetic path. Idk how you could unlearn something unless you are able to change the neural pathways.

 

[fate12321]

I can relate so much too you. I'm also in collage. I just transferred to a bigger university this semester, (there's A LOT of people in this university), and honestly, I can feel the pressure big time. Well, it's not so bad actually. I managed to control parts of my anxiety though. Since this is a new school for me, I'm back at square one. I have no friends. In my last college, i had only one friend in which i would talk to on a regular biases in school.
I'm trying my very best to communicate with others but my social anxiety has been ingrained deeply within my mind that I just accepted that it's a part of me. For me, it takes a lot of confidence for me to open up with someone and talk to them.
So yeah, I'd say my SA is a 7 on a 1-10 scale

 

[squidgee]

The only thing that I could imagine you are referring to is CBT. I agree SA is learned but I also think it is genetic and once the triggers happen your brain just goes it's natural genetic path. Idk how you could unlearn something unless you are able to change the neural pathways.

Neural pathways change all the time though. Our thinking and learning processes break, form or reinforce them.

 

[Zooman]

Neural pathways change all the time though. Our thinking and learning processes break, form or reinforce them.

You forget that your thinking processes are formed by your neural pathways.

 

[squidgee]

You forget that your thinking processes are formed by your neural pathways.

Yes, neural pathways that are changing though irrespective of whether it's intentional or not, and thus change our mode of thinking. It's a two way street, one can affect the other.

 

[DanielLewis]

I relate so much that I was literally about to stop reading because I knew exactly what you were going to say before even reading all of your post lol. Don't worry I read your post though lol. You wanna know how badly I relate? Last semester I decided to try to take a required New Student Experience class at my community college. The first day we had to introduce ourselves and say one thing that we enjoyed and made us unique. Of course my heart was pounding out of my chest and my mind was blank, so when it came to my turn I just introduced myself and then said idk. My teacher (who I could tell was an ******* literally in the first 2 minutes of class) then asked me if I was a boring person. I flipped when she said that and started asking if "listening to music" or "playing sports" were somehow unique (it's what some of the other people before me said lol) and it was pretty obvious i was worked up. Some students actually started to back me up a little and said that college was meant to be a time to learn about yourself, etc... the teacher then responded saying that she thought it was weird for someone not to know about themselves by now, etc... Anyways after the class was dismissed I dropped it. I knew i wasn't going to be able to deal with that teacher without losing my sanity. I really wish I had let my teacher have it before I dropped the class but whatever..I spoke up and i'm proud of that, though I feel like I kinda just attacked my classmates by accident in a way... Anways I bet to god that bitch knew why I wasn't in her class the next day. You wanna know the worst part? Apparently she majored in psychology in college yet she seemed like such an ignorant person. So yeah man, i totally get it. Anxiety ****ing sucks. Literally everything you wrote in your post I understand. I'm 20 years old and starting my first semester in college right now. Every other time I took a class I would literally drop it before the first week ended. This is now my 3rd week so far for this semester and i'm taking 3 classes, so I guess i'm setting a record for myself. Btw it is true that your face says a lot. If you haven't taken psychology then I highly suggest you listen to the lectures from intro to psychology on yale open courses. It is free and super interesting. You get to hear lecture recordings from a intro to psychology class at yale and i'll tell you I learned A LOT from it. For example your face really does show a lot about the way you feel. It is actually really hard for example to fake a smile. It's all in the eyes. I forget all the facts but it is a pretty low % of people who can actually fake a smile. Now think about having SA, idk about you but i'm not a very happy person when I'm anxious. As you can imagine my smiles don't look very genuine regardless of how hard I try. I imagine that scares off a fair amount of people. Also on the point about not knowing what to say, that is a common symptom of anxiety. When you become anxious it is observed that the blood flow from your pre-frontal cortex (the part of the brain responsible for "thinking") goes to your Amygdala. The amygdala is basically the primitive part of your brain that is responsible for the "fight or flight" response. So literally, when you have anxiety you CAN'T think! It isn't your fault! Our brains are just ****ed up. I really hope that science advances enough soon that anxiety can be fixed because anxiety is obviously a disease. Want proof that it is a disease? It it pretty much common knowledge these days that anxiety is inherited and it is thought to be a dominant gene. I'm not a geneticist so I can't go too far in detail but I'm 100% certain anxiety is nature, not nurture. I believe "nurture" does affect how you will react in life to the anxiety genotype to some extent but like I said I also believe anxiety is 100% inherited. I could go into more detail on why I have this certainty but that would require a whole other post. If you want to hear why i'd be more than willing to post my reasons though.

It's relieving to hear that someone else can relate to what I'm going through 100%. I didn't know that, physically, something is happening in the brain that's making it way more difficult to think. It makes a little more sense to me since I've always wondered how it could be possible for an intelligent person who has been in and witnessed thousands of social situations to be speechless and not be able to think of anything to say. It's like we have the knowledge to say stuff. The only thing I can't agree with is that anxiety is genetic and, thus, it can't be overcome. I'm a big believer that, as someone else said, it's a learned behavior and can be changed. I think it's all in the mind and the patterns of how we think and what we believe. Monitor your thoughts completely for a day and you'd be surprised about how many negative and unresourceful thoughts you have. Try to go 7 days without thinking any of these thoughts. Try to think positive for 7 days straight. It's a Tony Robbins challenge. I believe if we can change our minds, and our ways of thinking and what we believe, we can overcome SA. Of course, we also need practice. That's inevitable and we have to not care about being rejected by people. That's what I'm starting to realize. Even when I went out smiling at people I had to fake it a lot. When I was at the mall a lot of people ignored me. Actually it was sort of funny because some people looked elsewhere or up at the ceiling like they didn't notice me but they obviously did. I think that's just from the surprise of a stranger smiling at them randomly when that usually doesn't happen like at a mall. Anyway, I wouldn't be taking action like this if I didn't believe it was possible to change. It has to be. Think of it this way. If you HAD to interact with strangers for 10 hours a day for a year, do you think you would still be the same? There's no way....but this change doesn't happen because most of us don't get that kind of practice unless your a shoes salesman.

 

[Zooman]

Yes, neural pathways that are changing though irrespective of whether it's intentional or not, and thus change our mode of thinking. It's a two way street, one can affect the other.

You don't understand, if your neural pathways affect your thinking then how could your thinking ever stray from what was already "programmed", i.e. self cure is impossible. You can't "think" your way out of SA. That's why I hate when I see all these fake "I beat SA" books about people claiming it is just a mode of thinking and that you can change it. That is BS. I have SA, i'm pretty sure I know what it's like. If anyone had the willpower and drive to beat SA it was me. It isn't possible. Call it a quitter attitude or whatever you want, I call it realistic.

 

[Zooman]

It's relieving to hear that someone else can relate to what I'm going through 100%. I didn't know that, physically, something is happening in the brain that's making it way more difficult to think. It makes a little more sense to me since I've always wondered how it could be possible for an intelligent person who has been in and witnessed thousands of social situations to be speechless and not be able to think of anything to say. It's like we have the knowledge to say stuff. The only thing I can't agree with is that anxiety is genetic and, thus, it can't be overcome. I'm a big believer that, as someone else said, it's a learned behavior and can be changed. I think it's all in the mind and the patterns of how we think and what we believe. Monitor your thoughts completely for a day and you'd be surprised about how many negative and unresourceful thoughts you have. Try to go 7 days without thinking any of these thoughts. Try to think positive for 7 days straight. It's a Tony Robbins challenge. I believe if we can change our minds, and our ways of thinking and what we believe, we can overcome SA. Of course, we also need practice. That's inevitable and we have to not care about being rejected by people. That's what I'm starting to realize. Even when I went out smiling at people I had to fake it a lot. When I was at the mall a lot of people ignored me. Actually it was sort of funny because some people looked elsewhere or up at the ceiling like they didn't notice me but they obviously did. I think that's just from the surprise of a stranger smiling at them randomly when that usually doesn't happen like at a mall. Anyway, I wouldn't be taking action like this if I didn't believe it was possible to change. It has to be. Think of it this way. If you HAD to interact with strangers for 10 hours a day for a year, do you think you would still be the same? There's no way....but this change doesn't happen because most of us don't get that kind of practice unless your a shoes salesman.

Sorry but i completely disagree. It is already proven that it is heritable. Onto the point about changing your thinking, let's be logical... how can you not think about thoughts that your brain thinks? That is totally impossible. I can understand how so many people have this viewpoint though. Human beings have a pretty hard time associating that their brain is what makes their identity. I guess I don't blame people that can't accept this, it's not their fault, it still frustrates the hell out of me though. Btw, I can tell you are going the nurture over nature route, but i'd challenge you then to look at the symptoms of children and infants with SA. I'd also challenge you to look into the links between certain diseases and anxiety. Their is a reason they are linked and it has to do with genetics. To understand everything I am talking about requires a longing for truth, no matter how ****ed up it is. I guess that is what has always separated me from the majority. As Carl Sagan said "better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy".

 

[squidgee]

If anyone had the willpower and drive to beat SA it was me. It isn't possible. Call it a quitter attitude or whatever you want, I call it realistic.

That sounds a bit contradictory doesn't it?

If simply thinking your way out of SA wasn't possible, then you just invalidated CBT and any positive effect it may have had on an individual, because at its core, CBT is essentially just that, thinking differently. It may not necessarily be the most realistic mode of thinking, but it is more constructive and useful.

Btw, I can tell you are going the nurture over nature route, but i'd challenge you then to look at the symptoms of children and infants with SA. I'd also challenge you to look into the links between certain diseases and anxiety. Their is a reason they are linked and it has to do with genetics.

The points you made are just simple correlations. There's an association, but that isn't proof. It is only hypothesised that the most likely cause of mental illness is due to both genetics and environmental factors. No one in the world including you or me can say with 100% confidence that "it's all nature" or "it's all nurture" because neuroscience and genetics still hasn't advanced that far yet to make such a bold conclusion.

 

[Zooman]

That sounds a bit contradictory doesn't it?

If simply thinking your way out of SA wasn't possible, then you just invalidated CBT and any positive effect it may have had on an individual, because at its core, CBT is essentially just that, thinking differently. It may not necessarily be the most realistic mode of thinking, but it is more constructive and useful.



The points you made are just simple correlations. There's an association, but that isn't proof. It is only hypothesised that the most likely cause of mental illness is due to both genetics and environmental factors. No one in the world including you or me can say with 100% confidence that "it's all nature" or "it's all nurture" because neuroscience and genetics still hasn't advanced that far yet to make such a bold conclusion.

Nature vs nurture isn't that simple. It isn't like it is 100% one or the other, it is a combination. Nurture plays the role of determining which of the multitude of possible outcomes your nature will take. In essence, nurture is just the possibilities of what can happen to you in life. Your genotype is what will determine your reaction to these triggers which nurture provides, i.e. you are born with a certain genotype, your reaction to life makes you into who you are, your reactions are based on your genotype. The only way I believe anxiety will be cured is by genetic manipulation.

 

[squidgee]

Nature vs nurture isn't that simple. It isn't like it is 100% one or the other, it is a combination.

That's what I was alluding to.

The only way I believe anxiety will be cured is by genetic manipulation.

And what of those who once had anxiety and now do not without genetic manipulation? For most people, that's sufficient enough to say it's "cured".

 

[Zooman]

That's what I was alluding to.



And what of those who once had anxiety and now do not without genetic manipulation? For most people, that's sufficient enough to say it's "cured".

Not to brag, *cough*, but i've had SA all my life and spent a lot of time educating myself, so I think i have a higher level of knowledge than most in this field. From my experience, I am automatically skeptical of people who are "cured". Fakes exist everywhere and so I try my very best to validate information before taking someone's word. Don't get me wrong, i'm sure there are also genuine people out there who think they have cured their anxiety, but then you have to take into account what they mean by anxiety. The majority of these people might be well-intentioned, but I highly doubt they suffered from clinical SA. I wouldn't be surprised if most of these people were never even diagnosed.