The situations in which a social anxiety disorder manifests itself can vary. We speak of a ‘specific social anxiety’ if you are mainly afraid of one specific situation. This could be, for example, when you have to give a presentation or talk in front of a group. If you suffer from a ‘generalized social phobia’, you are afraid of different types of situations.

If you suffer from a social phobia, you may tend to avoid social situations, but this the anxiety is maintained.

Social anxiety disorder test
There is no specific social anxiety disorder test or a social phobia test that you can take to find out if you might have a social phobia. You can, however, complete our anxiety disorder test. This test gives you an indication of whether you have an anxiety disorder, but does not indicate which anxiety disorder you are dealing with.

Social phobia characteristics
If your tu00f3ch unintentionally ends up in a (social) situation , you are engulfed in an intense fear. You have a panic attack or start sweating, trembling or blushing.

Other social anxiety symptoms that often occur with social phobia are:

palpitations
sweating
chills
tightness of the chest
stuttering
stomach complaints
dry mouth
rapid breathing
headache
panic attack
Causes of social phobia
Little is known about the cause of social anxiety disorders. However, a number of factors are known that can influence the development of this phobia:

Heredity: if a social phobia occurs more often in your family, there is a chance that you have a greater predisposition to develop a social phobia. development
Environment: if you have been raised very protected, have been bullied or if you have had a ‘bad’ example in your environment, you have a greater chance of developing a social phobia
Problem: factors that also affect Addiction problems, depression or experiencing a violent event can influence the development of a social phobia.
Treatment of social phobia
A social phobia does not go away on its own. Because the consequences of a (starting) social phobia are (or can be) great, it is important to get help. Your GP can refer you to a specialized care provider.

At PsyQ we regularly treat people with social phobia. The emphasis in our treatments is on a gradual confrontation with the situations in which you can get a panic attack. For example, if you have a phobia of speaking in front of a group, we will practice that in therapy.

The treatment also consists of:

relaxation and breathing techniques< br />learning to put catastrophic thoughts into perspective
reading about the problem (self-help literature)
information meetings
behavioural therapy
possibly medication