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Psychological Disorders: The Role Of Social Anxiety In Children

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Social anxiety disorder, or also known as social phobia, is a fear of social situations that involve interacting with others. Those with social anxiety disorder feel like they’re always in the spotlight, being scrutinized for everything they do (Chansky, 2004, p. 148) and they try to avoid social situations as much as they can (Meyers, 2011, p. 662-663). Some physical symptoms of social anxiety disorder include stomach aches, shallow breathing, sweating, feeling hot flashes, feeling like your heart is racing, tightness in chest, feeling tense, or shakiness. According to the Canadian Mental Health Association (2012), about 8% of people will experience symptoms of social anxiety disorder at some point in their life and women were found to experience …show more content…
This is to say that many children and teens are the most affected out of everyone. There are many kids out there who don’t realize that they have social anxiety, and those who do, realize that there is something about them that makes them different from other children. But since they don’t want to be seen as someone different and avoid social rejection, they will try to act normal and get on with their lives (Chansky, 2004, p. 2 ). Even so, these children may be less popular and have fewer friends because of social fears. They constantly spend time worrying about every little thing and spend “inordinate amounts of time preparing for an event” (Chansky, 2004, p. 20). Children with social anxiety often feel like their interests and hobbies are different from other children and don’t try to converse with others who they think are different from them. The “anticipating or overestimating negative reactions from peers lead to more withdrawal, which then may lead to real changes in how peers include or don’t include the child” (Chansky, 2004, p. 148). This means that the more a child withdraw from his/her peers, despite them trying to encourage them to socialize with them, their peers may give up because they are tired of trying and feel like they aren’t getting anywhere near improving the situation and think that the other child is disinterested. Some children who have social anxiety are harder to spot than other. Some red flags to look out for are avoidance of social situations, such as group lunches or activities at school to avoid interacting with others or risk being humiliated, and talking in a quiet voice or not speaking at all. For example they are very uncomfortable speaking on the phone or raising their hands in class to ask or answer a question (Chansky, 2004, p.

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