How Social Anxiety Affects a Persons Life

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How Social Anxiety affects a person’s life According to the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, “thirty-six percent of people with social anxiety disorder report symptoms for ten or more years before seeking help”. Social anxiety also known as social phobia is not to be taken lightly. It often affects multiple aspects of a person’s life. This makes it difficult for someone with social anxiety to have a normal daily pattern. Social anxiety can affect health, relationships, daily performance, emotions, and behavior. Social anxiety can affect a person’s health and form bad habits. A person suffering from social anxiety may have trouble falling asleep and frequently wake up throughout the night. Thus causing a person to develop insomnia. A lot of the time a person with social anxiety may have trouble falling asleep due to the stress of an upcoming social event. Having bad sleeping patterns such as these can wear a person’s body down and create serious health problems (Denkmire and Perritano 7). Individuals with social phobia tend to over analyze or over think simple situations which can cause a large amount of stress when done every day. Heart disease, stroke, and high blood pressure are a few serious side effects associated with the stress that accompanies social anxiety. Social anxiety increases a person’s chances of developing high blood pressure. An example of a bad habit that someone suffering from social anxiety can form is drug abuse. Major depression is often associated with social anxiety which can contribute to the abuse of drugs. People with social anxiety are more likely to abuse substances due to shyness and nervousness. A person suffering from this may become afraid to live in their world of fear. Some start to use substances to escape from reality. Then, they start to realize that it is easier to do every
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