Social Anxiety Disorder, anxiety, anxiety attack, stress management, anxiety social, shyness

Often the first place to start when talking about recovery is to understand exactly what anxiety is. Without this knowledge it is often difficult to move forward. Social Anxiety Disorder is almost always accompanied by physical symptoms of anxiety. These symptoms of anxiety are not isolated symptoms, rather stem from a series of psychological and physiological changes taking place when you are in particular situations, or merely think about particular situations. Below is a brief explanation of the origins of your anxiety.

Anxiety is a normal emotion, which everyone experiences. It is a protective mechanism we have to protect ourselves from danger, fear or threat.

When our mind interprets a situation as dangerous, fearful or threatening physiological changes start happening to prepare our body to protect itself from the danger or threat. These physiological changes are what we commonly identify as anxiety.

The fight or flight mechanism is the same as anxiety. It is the body’s response to danger, fear or threat.

When our mind recognises danger (either real or perceived), the body reacts in a particular way. As stated above, it prepares ourselves through a number of physiological changes to protect ourselves from the danger or threat with two main outcomes...

For example, if we take ourselves back to the days of the cave man we would agree that he was in real danger on a regular basis. At times he may have been confronted with tigers, lions and other animals hunting him for his life. At other times he may have been confronted with other cave men willing to kill him to obtain his food. The cave man had to protect himself and his life. The fight or flight mechanism or the anxiety response gave the cave man a greater chance of surviving the danger or threat.

Firstly we must perceive fear, threat or danger. We do this by having a thought that is based on fear, threat or danger. For example, "What if I die?", "What if I make a fool of myself?", "What if I cannot escape?".

Our body will then automatically respond by providing us with 'extra' energy in order to escape the fear, threat or danger, or fight it. This extra energy serves the purpose of protecting us from the danger we perceive. Some of the physiological changes that take place to provide us with this 'extra' energy include...

	Large amount of adrenaline pumped into the body to put us in a state of increased alertness
	Blood is redirected away from the extremities to the large muscles of the body
	The heart starts working harder to move the blood to the large muscle groups as quickly as it can
	Increase in Respiratory Rate
	Release of red blood cells
	Release of sugar by liver
	Increase in metabolic rate

These physiological changes have particular side effects and it is the side effects of these changes that we commonly recognise as symptoms of anxiety. The table below explains this relationship...

Psychological Awareness of Fear, Threat, or Danger		Automatic Physiological Response		Side Effects (Symptoms of Anxiety)
	"What if I die!" "What if I cannot escape!" "What if they think I am an idiot!"		Large amount of adrenaline pumped into the body to put us in a state of increased alertness		Sweating Trembling and Shaking
			Blood is redirected away from the extremities to the large muscles of the body		Pins and Needles Dizzy Cold hands and feet Nausea
			The heart starts working harder to move the blood to the large muscle groups as quickly as it can		Racing Heart
			Increase in Respiratory Rate to bring more oxygen into the body		Increased Respiratory Rate
			Release of red blood cells to carry more oxygen to the major muscle groups of the body
			Release of sugar by liver as an instant form of energy		Urge to run
			Increase in metabolic rate to break down the sugar for energy		Urge to run

* See if you can identify with any of the side effects of the physiological changes that take place in response to having a fearful thought. If you notice these symptoms when you are feeling anxious, then your body is working properly. It is protecting you from the danger you are perceiving. However, in our life as it is today, we don't really need that sort of protection, and most of the time it only makes us feel very uncomfortable. If you experience these symptoms in everyday life, it is important to work backwards, and try and identify the fear based thought you are having in which is resulting in your symptoms of anxiety. Ask yourself if the fear you perceive is really warranted.

After we have been provided with this 'extra' energy, we will have a great urge to get away from the situation, or fight the danger. i.e. 'fight' or 'flight'. If we don’t actually ‘fight or flight’ we do not expend all the potential energy our body has made available to us as a protective mechanism.

This energy is stored as tension in our muscles. Over a long period of time this tension will make us feel ‘on edge’, unable to relax. We will have problems sleeping, relaxing and feeling healthy.

When someone is living with these high levels of anxiety/tension, life becomes very uncomfortable twenty four hours a day and this is when we would talk about someone having an Anxiety Disorder.

Free Floating Anxiety... this is anxiety that is not connected with any particular situation, it comes out of the blue. People who have Generalised Anxiety Disorder often have free-floating anxiety.

Situational Anxiety... this type of anxiety is different from everyday fear in that it tends to be out of proportion or unrealistic. It arises only in response to a specific situation. When people start to avoid the situation, the anxiety is said to have become ‘phobic’.

Anticipatory Anxiety... this type of anxiety occurs when you experience high levels of anxiety merely by thinking about a situation or event which you fear. This type of anxiety can often be the most draining as people can be caught in this state for weeks on end, worrying excessively about an event that is a long way in the future.

Post Situational Anxiety... this type of anxiety occurs after the event or situation you feared has passed or been avoided. This type of anxiety is also draining as the person may worry for a long time after the event about how they performed, what they said, or what others thought of them. Because of this worry and continuous analysis of the event, when the event arises again in the future, it is often anticipated with dread once again, and the person finds themselves caught in the Anticipatory Anxiety Phase all over again.

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