Types of social phobia characteristics and examples

Throughout life we ​​are going through different situations that produce certain reactions. While we live, we are constantly exposing us to moments that can generate some nervousness, since they are unknown situations.

A sense of discomfort, fear and anxiety appears when we face the new. However, there are people who have great difficulties in coping with this type of moments and suffer for it. These problems generate inconveniences in other areas of their life, since the level of stress they feel is very large.

It may have happened to you or you may know someone who has these reactions. ¿You want to know more about this? In this Psychology-online article, we will give you information about the types of social phobia, what are its characteristics and some examples.

1. Characteristics of social phobia
2. Social phobia of interaction
3. Social phobia of action
4. Examples of social phobia types

Characteristics of social phobia

First of all, we will talk about what social phobia is. There are some criteria that allow their detection and that enable an approach to this clinical picture. According to the DSM-V, the social phobia is classified as a social anxiety disorder. Specifically, the characteristics of social phobia are:

• Fear and anxiety in specific social situations: When there is the possibility of being judged in a negative way
• Avoidance or resistance of social situations.
• Disproportionate fear and anxiety. In this article, we tell you what to do when you have anxiety.
• The duration of symptoms are usually six months or more.
• Deterioration in labor, social relations and other areas of importance for the person.
• Fear and anxiety are not caused by physiological effects of a toxic substance or a certain disease.
• In case there is a disease, fear, anxiety and avoidance are not related to it.

Social phobia of interaction

One of the types of social phobia that consists in fear of relating to other people. Individuals suffering from this type of social phobia have thoughts, emotions and behaviors linked to failure in front of others. For this reason, they present a great fear of the exhibition in public, since they are conditioned by the look and the word of others.

In general, this type of social phobia Start during adolescence. At this moment of life the human being begins to relate to different people who are then part of their social circle, a fact that can produce fears and insecurities. In turn, the person begins to part with their family nucleus and establish new social relations outside the same.

In this article, you will find more information about fears in childhood and adolescence and their relationship with self -esteem.

Symptoms of the social phobia of interaction

A person with social phobia manifests different signs. Next, we will see three types of symptoms characteristic of the social phobia of interaction

• Emotional symptoms: Manifestations that involve the emotions that a person in the aings of anxiety has. Among the most relevant, fear and anguish stand out for being judged.
• Behavioral symptoms: They consist of those behaviors presented by people in the face of an anxiety situation. The most frequent is the avoidance of social moments.
• Body symptoms: manifestations that occur in the body when a person experiences an anxiety situation. The most prominent symptoms are sweating, tremors, dizziness, difficulty breathing, increased heart rate, redness, headache, stomach pain or nausea, among others.

It is important to clarify that social phobias are not the same in each person. Therefore, take into account age, sex, family medical history and pre -existing diseases to address social phobia that must be treated by a health professional.

Social phobia of action

This type of social phobia refers to fear of being observed by other people. Social phobia has different intensities: mild, moderate or serious. In these cases, the main causes of social phobia usually the following:

• Unpleasant events that have occurred in the past: In circumstances in which the person has felt fear and/or anxiety in front of other people. These emotions may persist in the person and then reappear later, thus constituting a social phobia.
• Environmental factors: It is possible that a relative suffers from this type of clinical picture. This allows the person to imitate these behaviors and adopt them as patterns of behavior in life.

Symptoms of the social phobia of action

People with social phobia of action have the following symptoms:

• Emotional symptoms: He feels an intense fear during social situations and insecurity in front of people, among others.
• Behavioral symptoms: affected people adopt avoidance behaviors so as not to be exposed to others.
• Body symptoms: When a person with social phobia feels observed by other people manifest symptoms such as tremors, redness or stomach pain, among others.

The presence of any of these symptoms does not necessarily mean that we have a social phobia. This diagnosis must be made by a health professional, since it will be in charge of indicating an appropriate treatment to the characteristics of the patient, as well as can observe the evolution over time.

Examples of social phobia types

In this section we will see some examples of social phobia. It is important to clarify that we will talk about here about situations that can occur in a generalized way and that we do not emphasize any particular event.

• Go to work.
• Attend parties.
• Start a conversation.
• Make an exhibition in public.
• Eat food in front of others.
• Greet people.
• Go to school.
• Hide out of people.
• Avoid visual contact.

This list of examples of social phobia only contains the best known situations, although there are other situations that are within the particularities of social phobia. In this article, we give you advice to overcome social phobia.

This article is merely informative, in psychology-online we have no power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Types of social phobia: characteristics and examples, We recommend that you enter our clinical psychology category.