A Parent's Introduction To Social Anxiety Disorder

Having a social phobia or Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) means that your child has problems with performance and social situations. The situations that will commonly produce the intense feelings of fear are:

Initiating conversation

Unstructured activities with peers

Performing in front of other people

Speaking up in class

Inviting others to join in or get together

Avoiding these activities can affect the child's academic performance as well as their ability to have and make friends or socialize with others their own age.

The time when Social Anxiety Disorder will usually hit is right at the tween/teen adolescent time when friendships and social activities are crucial to mature development. It is important to get professional help for a child suffering from Social Anxiety Disorder because it will not only affect healthy social and emotional development, but can also lead to depression and substance abuse.

You can't always count on teachers to inform you or refer your child for help as they may write it off as just being shy, or that because it is not disruptive, it is therefore not a problem.

Signs of Social Anxiety Disorder
Knowing what anxiety signs to look for will help to identify if your child is having symptoms, especially of social anxiety. Here are some to the things to look for in a child:

Hesitance, passivity, and discomfort in the spotlight

Avoidance or refusal to initiate conversations, perform in front of others, invite friends to get together, telephone others for homework or other information, or order food in restaurants

Avoiding eye contact

Speaking very softly or mumbling

Minimal interaction and conversation with peers

Appearing isolated or on the fringes of the group

Sitting alone in the library or cafeteria, or hanging back from a group in team meetings

Overly concerned with negative evaluation, humiliation, or embarrassment

Difficulty with public speaking, reading aloud, or being called on in class

Now, keep in mind that all kids go through these problems at one time or another, and that some kids are just naturally, well, shy. I know I was so shy in school that I would break out in a sweat if I had to get up in front of the class and speak. Look at all of these signs together and if they are over a period of time and are causing problems for your child, then it would be time to bring it up to your primary care physician.

When put into these types of situations, here are some of the ways a child can react:

Sweating

Racing heart

Stomachache

Dizziness

Crying

Tantrums

Freezing

Like I said, these are signs in a child that may indicate a problem with social anxiety. Of course, some kids will use these things just to get out of doing school work! Well, that is one of the reasons symptoms need to persist over at least a month.

If your child is going out of their way to avoid social situations, having difficulty in school and completely withdrawn at home, please, write down your observations and make an appointment with your child's pediatrician. Take your list of observations with you to your appointment with the doctor so you can show them things like what occurred, when, where, and frequency of occurrence.