Social Anxiety Disorder - Beyond Being Shy

Most people experience some level of anxiety when it comes to exploring new relationships and situations. For some, this anxiety can be crippling. Suffering from Social Anxiety Disorder is often labeled as simple shyness. Unfortunately, the disorder is far more damaging then the average person might think. Often it causes one to not only distance one's self from new opportunities, but it can also lead to shutting out all personal interactions period -even with close family members and friends.

Here is a platform for those of us who fall victim to this condition, and those who put up with us. Let's discuss the signs and symptons as well as share our coping skills - or lack there of. The hardest step in trying to conquer any social phobia is admitting to anyone that you have them.

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Social phobia and depression in Japan

Written by Croydonjohn on

From: mentalhealthupdate.blogspot.com

Phobias and major depression are both relatively common and can occur together. It could be that there are common biological and psychological factors between the two conditions or that there are sociocultural factors that make phobias more damaging in some cultures than in others. A team of researchers from Japan studied 2,436 people and looked into the links between specific phobias (e.g. spiders, dogs, lifts), agoraphobia, social phobia, and depression. The study found that social phobia was linked to a fourfold increase in the risk of depression whereas the other phobias had little effect. The researchers thought that because Japan is a relatively collectivist culture the social problems linked to social phobia could make it a more powerful cause of depression in Japan than in other countries.

Tsuchiya, Masao ... [et al] - Lifetime comorbidities between phobic disorders and major depression in Japan: results from the World Mental Health Japan 2002-2004 survey Depression and Anxiety October 2009, 26(10), 949-955

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