Have you ever worried about your appearance, or how you responded to a situation, or how people perceived you? Of course, we all have.
But with social anxiety disorder, these worries are more intense and persistent than is warranted — or healthy.Early research on social anxiety exclusively studied people with a fear of public speaking.
We now recognize that social anxiety broadly involves excessive worry about how others will perceive, think about, and react to you.
Sometimes, social anxiety even extends to an individual’s unspoken thoughts and worries about how people would respond “if they ever knew” that individual’s inner fears and desires.In children, social anxiety may look like awkwardness in conversations with peers or apprehension about joining activities.
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