SA or SP

[Scottish_Player]

I was thinking the other day about social anxiety and social phobia and wondering are they the same thing or diffrent or is it just diffrent areas use diffrent names?

For me i would say i have SA more than SP cause iam not really scared of social situtions its just i feel anxious while im in them but i can put myself through it if REALLY need be. But to me being SP would be more like having to totaly avoid social situations all together if this makes sense.


Little extra - I was watching TV the other night and someone said the 3 keys to a happy life are

1 - Having something to love

2 - Having a purpose

3 - Having something to look forward too

and if you have 2 of them your doing ok well i got 1 of them which is number 2 but i could say that i have 2 of them if i have something to look forward to and the something to look forward to would be having something to love :lol: , sorry iam babling on now it was just a thought

 

[Morgs]

From what i have read it is the same thing (SA-SP)

 

[lily]

That's a good analogy, in that case I have Social phobia. I think phobias are triggered by a past event that happened and ruined it for you. Social anxiety is probably in the more lucky range in that they can have anxiety but still socialize. Or those w/ Social anxiety could have it all their life, not out of an event which is also bad since it's genetic, and in Social phobia it could have either genetics involved and other factors or etc and the event brings it on easier although nowadays still, no one has come up with s/th. clever enough to cure phobias and behavioral therapists don't work as all they will tell you is to confront your fears and it's not that easy, like we didn't try that already and what happens! Anxiety until you go away.

 

[Aramoor]

Little extra - I was watching TV the other night and someone said the 3 keys to a happy life are

1 - Having something to love

2 - Having a purpose

3 - Having something to look forward too

Hehe. Was you watching neighbours??

 

[Septor]

I agree with Scottish_Player. I was never sure what the different between social anxiety and social phobia was.I always thought that social anxiety was when someone who was in a social situation would become uncomfortable and have anxiety but it would not necessarily stop them from being in social situation.They could still have some social interaction in some cases even though it made them uncomfortable.

Where people with social phobia avoid social interaction if at all possible because of the fear of the social situation itself.It's just more of a extreme form of social anxiety.Of course that begs the question how does avoidant personality disorder fit in to all of this.Which in my opinion is just longterm social phobia.

Of course these are all labels anyways so ever one could a little bit of each and this is my on conjecture so I could be wrong.

 

[Scottish_Player]

Hehe. Was you watching neighbours??

lol yeh it was neighbours iam guessin you seen it too :lol:

 

[Aramoor]

Certainly did. The sheer unfeasibility of most of the plot lines just keep me coming back time after time....

 

[Danfalc]

Dont know if this is right or not.But i read in a book about social anxiety/shyness/social phobia. That everyone gets social anxiety to a certain extent, people who lead perfecty normal lives get social anxious in certain situations... public speaking,weddings ect...

Not saying this is fact just saying what the book said... social phobia is when your social anxiety('s) get so bad that it prevents you from leading a normal life.

 

[Septor]

post deleted /quote]

I don't know I have been looking and one of the symptoms describe for for Avoidant personality disorder is anxiety but like you you said everyone illness is different for different individual.

I still don't get what the different is between Avoidant personality disorder and Social Phobia is.

 

[lily]

The difference can be that Avoidant personality disorder is your personality to avoid things than to confront situations and others while Social phobia is not necessarily genetic etc, it could be developed out of previous events and faulty unbringing.

 

[Septor]

From what I have read about social phobia and avoidant personality disorder the main difference has to do with severity.Even the dsm-IV the bible for psychiatry basically suggest that avoidant personality disorder is a more severe form of social phobia.Although people diagnosed with avoidant personality disorder will also meet the diagnostic criteria for social phobia,people with social phobia do not necessarily meet diagnostic criteria for avoidant personality disorder.

The literature on social phobia suggests that for phobics they are unable to follow the interaction with people because they are so focused on their internal reactions. However, the research on avoidant personality disorder also emphasizes that the avoidants are engaged ín external monitoring of the other person’s reactions as well. This additional processing of information could contribute to the increased severity of avoidant personality disorder over social phobia. The excessive monitoring by avoidants, combined with a hypersensitivity to rejection makes their perception of rejection almost inevitable or so I have read.

After all this I think that in a lot of cases it's more the opinion of the therapist more then any thing.Go to one get diagnosed with avoidant personality disorder.Go to a different one get diagnosed with social phobia.Confusing. :?

 

[Quixote]

Dont know if this is right or not.But i read in a book about social anxiety/shyness/social phobia. That everyone gets social anxiety to a certain extent, people who lead perfecty normal lives get social anxious in certain situations... public speaking,weddings ect...

Not saying this is fact just saying what the book said... social phobia is when your social anxiety('s) get so bad that it prevents you from leading a normal life.

I agree completely, contact with other human beings is always associated with a certain amount of anxiety, it is a natural self protection mechanism I think. For example nobody likes to be touched inexpectedly by a stranger, we tend to avoid it. It is the amount of anxiety that matters, if it is too much there is something wrong.

As for SP and SA I just thought it was a matter of how bad it was, but then words carry the meaning people attach to them, so there can be multiple ones I suppose, all correct.

 

[triceratops]

I was thinking the other day about social anxiety and social phobia and wondering are they the same thing or diffrent or is it just diffrent areas use diffrent names?

For me i would say i have SA more than SP cause iam not really scared of social situtions its just i feel anxious while im in them but i can put myself through it if REALLY need be. But to me being SP would be more like having to totaly avoid social situations all together if this makes sense.


Little extra - I was watching TV the other night and someone said the 3 keys to a happy life are

1 - Having something to love

2 - Having a purpose

3 - Having something to look forward too

and if you have 2 of them your doing ok well i got 1 of them which is number 2 but i could say that i have 2 of them if i have something to look forward to and the something to look forward to would be having something to love :lol: , sorry iam babling on now it was just a thought

i have all 3 woohoo!