social phobia as a disease or symptom?

[no1]

Is your social phobia or anxiety a disease or a symptom of a much larger disease? In my case it's both I guess... but I believe my social phobia has something deeper. Maybe it's my insomnia or whatever the heck it is.

 

[NormanBates]

I always thought that my odd behavior was the result of something much larger - a symptom of something that I thought could just be talked out.
But it seems people would rather not talk
(who's got avoidant personality now????)

So after so many failed attempts to strike a meaningful healing conversation, and after being laughed at to my face by too many, I now see my behavior as just an unavoidable part of who I am.

 

[pinkputter]

it's a behavioral/mental thoughts disorder

 

[sabbath92003]

Disease

dis-ease
- noun
1. a disordered or incorrectly functioning organ, part, structure, or system of the body resulting from the effect of genetic or developmental errors, infection, poisons, nutritional deficiency or imbalance, toxicity, or unfavorable environmental factors; illness; sickness; ailment.

 

[Helyna]

Yeah, I think there's a bigger problem in people who have this... either whatever causes anxiety in general and depression or bad experiences...

 

[BashfulDoll]

mental/behavioral i think.

i put just die for kicks though ^_^'

 

[bleach]

I believe that everything we now consider a mental disorder is a symptom, and all the currently available treatments are only treating the symptoms. Our knowledge of the brain's processes are still too vague to have a good idea what causes neurosis.

 

[Psychedelicious]

It's a disorder, not a disease. Those are two very different things. It is also a symptom.

 

[freestylemonster]

I think it's horrible when someone calls it a disease...Cancer is a disease. It's a lot worse than social phobia.

Social phobia is a phobia. The irrational fear of being social. Just like some people are afraid of spiders, others are afraid of small dark spaces, we're afraid of talking!

 

[kayelle]

In my opinion it's definitely a symptom of something wrong in life. It's like physical pain. Physical pain is a symptom of something being wrong, like if you break your leg the pain tells you there's something wrong with your leg.
I think it's the exact same for SA and anxiety in general, it's a symptom of something larger in your life that's causing you mental pain, and in us it manifests as anxiety. I think addressing these problems is the first of a long list of steps you need to take before you can recover, and that without dealing with these things there's no way you can conquer anxiety.