Facts:
q 3rd most common psychiatric disorder in the United States
q occurs more often in women
q begins in childhood or early adolescence

What is it? Social anxiety disorder, also known as social phobia, is an excessive, persistent fear of social and performance situations so severe it disrupts your daily life and relationships. People with social anxiety have a persistent, intense and ongoing fear of being watched, judged by others and being embarrassed or humiliated by their own actions.

People with social phobia often feel as if :
q everyone's attention is focused on them.
q everyone notices their tiniest mistakes (which often aren't mistakes in the first place).
q everyone else is much more capable in the same situation.
Treatments:
Treatment can involve medications, psychotherapy (talk therapy) or both. It is likely you will need ongoing treatment to prevent your social anxiety from returning.
Paxil is the only medication approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of social anxiety disorder.                                                                             Some people find comfort just by learning social anxiety is a medical condition. Learning more about your condition is often a good first step toward feeling better.                                                                                                        Antidepressants such as Zoloft
Neurontin Reduces Symptoms of Social Phobia
With regard to psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy has received the most support. The child focuses on cognitions (e.g., self-statements) and participates in behavioral exercises such as exposure or role-playing. This therapy has been applied in individual as well as group settings. Family involvement is another treatment component.

Symptoms: People with social anxiety disorder usually experience significant emotional distress in the following situations:
Being introduced to other people
Being teased or criticized
Being the center of attention
Being watched while doing something
Meeting people in authority ("important people")
Most social encounters, particularly with strangers
Making "small talk" at parties
Going around the room in a circle and having to say something
This list is certainly not a complete list of symptoms -- other feelings may be associated with social anxiety as well.
The feelings that accompany social anxiety include anxiety, intense fear, nervousness, automatic negative thinking cycles, racing heart, blushing, excessive sweating, dry throat and mouth, trembling, and muscle twitches.
Constant, intense anxiety is the most common feature.

Insight: People with social anxiety know that their anxiety is irrational and does not make logical sense. Nevertheless, thoughts and feelings of anxiety persist and show no signs of going away, without appropriate treatment.
Therapy: Cognitive-behavioral therapy for social anxiety has been markedly successful.  Thousands of research studies now indicate that, after CBT, people with social anxiety disorder report a changed life -- one that is no longer controlled by fear and anxiety.
''Children suffer both emotionally and developmentally from social phobia. They tend not to play with other children, do not develop normal friendships, appear unhappy, do not engage in organized activities such as sports teams and birthday parties and in extreme cases, may refuse to attend school. As a consequence of their social inhibition, these children do not develop the essential social skills necessary for normal social discourse. They frequently report feeling shy and sad, and in extreme cases may show some signs of depression,'' say the authors.
Social phobias run in families. Research suggests that genetics likely play a role in the development of some cases of social phobia. However, environmental factors play an equally important role. Some people develop social phobias because of traumatic social experiences - mind going blank when delivering a class presentation. Social phobia can also develop from observing others with social phobia, and particularly significant others like parents, react to social situations with trepidation.
 
 

Helpful Strategies for Teachers and Parents:

Help build child’s self-esteem
Help the child develop social skills
Allow the child to warm up to new situations.
Consult a guidance counselor or psychologist
Eliminate teasing of the children or reduce the impact
Teach the children to identify and to verbally express their emotions
The first step is to educate the child and parents about the disorder and establish a baseline of information about the child and his/her specific anxieties. The second step, social skills training, involves teaching children how to interact with others. Many socially phobic children lack these basic skills, thus preventing them from interacting effectively in social situations. The children practice simple greetings, learn how to start conversations, and hone their listening and remembering skills. Step three is peer generalization. Here the children join a group of non-anxious peers in a comfortable environment where they can practice their newly acquired social skills. The outgoing children are encouraged to try to "draw out" the socially phobic children. The final step, in vivo exposure, is an individual exposure session geared to address the child's unique pattern of social fear. In these sessions, the child may be asked to read in front of a group, act out plays, or take a "test" on a blackboard while being observed by others.
"Treating social phobia is complex. It's not enough for a child to receive attention from a caring adult, or to stick a child in a group and hope he or she will interact. The success of SET-C is based on very specific skills and how we teach those skills," says Beidel.
Beidel emphasizes the distinction between shy and socially phobic children. Shy children may initially exhibit some or all of the symptoms attributed to "Clara." However, they will generally "warm up" and relax after a few minutes. Socially phobic children exhibit such extreme shyness that it interferes with things that children normally do, such as make friends, play, participate in class, and even attend school.
The children participating in the study are between the ages of eight and 12. Beidel and Turner suggest that parents who suspect their children are socially phobic should wait for any professional diagnostics until the child is school-age; before that, it's too early to really diagnose the disorder.
Turner and Beidel recently received funding for a five-year project to study the longer- term results of the SET-C on the children, with particular emphasis on their teen years which can be the most psychologically important for the development of the disorder.

An example of how someone might feel with Social Anxiety Disorder:
A man finds it difficult to walk down the street because he's self-conscious and feels that people are watching him from their windows. Worse, he may run into a person on the sidewalk and be forced to say hello to them. He's not sure he can do that. His voice will catch, his "hello" will sound weak, and the other person will know he's frightened. More than anything else, he doesn't want anyone to know that he's afraid. He keeps his eyes safely away from anyone else's gaze and prays he can make it home without having to talk to anyone.
 

References:
http://www.paxil.com/sad/sa_ln.html
http://www.socialphobia.org/whatis.html#whatis1
http://www.socialphobia.org/social.html#top
http://www.socialphobia.org/fact.html
http://panicdisorder.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.polaris.nova.edu%2F%7Emalouffj%2Fshyness.htm

Book: Shy Children, Phobic Adults: Nature and Treatment of Social Phobia, by Deborah C. Beidel, Ph.D., and Samuel M. Turner, Ph.D., University
of South Carolina
Here are some of the symptoms
Symptoms:
People with social anxiety disorder usually experience significant emotional distress in the following situations:
Being introduced to other people
Being teased or criticized
Being the center of attention
Being watched while doing something
Meeting people in authority ("important people")
Most social encounters, particularly with strangers
Making "small talk" at parties
Going around the room in a circle and having to say something
This list is certainly not a complete list of symptoms -- other feelings may be associated with social anxiety as well.
The feelings that accompany social anxiety include anxiety, intense fear, nervousness, automatic negative thinking cycles, racing heart, blushing, excessive sweating, dry throat and mouth, trembling, and muscle twitches.
Constant, intense anxiety is the most common feature.

Insight: People with social anxiety know that their anxiety is irrational and does not make logical sense. Nevertheless, thoughts and feelings of anxiety persist and show no signs of going away, without appropriate treatment.
Therapy: Cognitive-behavioral therapy for social anxiety has been markedly successful.  Thousands of research studies now indicate that, after CBT, people with social anxiety disorder report a changed life -- one that is no longer controlled by fear and anxiety.
''Children suffer both emotionally and developmentally from social phobia. They tend not to play with other children, do not develop normal friendships, appear unhappy, do not engage in organized activities such as sports teams and birthday parties and in extreme cases, may refuse to attend school. As a consequence of their social inhibition, these children do not develop the essential social skills necessary for normal social discourse. They frequently report feeling shy and sad, and in extreme cases may show some signs of depression,'' say the authors.
Social phobias run in families. Research suggests that genetics likely play a role in the development of some cases of social phobia. However, environmental factors play an equally important role. Some people develop social phobias because of traumatic social experiences - mind going blank when delivering a class presentation. Social phobia can also develop from observing others with social phobia, and particularly significant others like parents, react to social situations with trepidation.
 
 

Molly Carlberg
April 5, 2002
 

Inquiry Project Teaching Reflection

I thought that the Ball Toss question game at the beginning went well because

everyone felt like they knew something about the topic before we got started and it was a

fun way to introduce our presentation on Behavioral Disorders.  I also thought that the

presentations that we did to a small group went well because it was personal and it we

didn’t stand up in front of everyone and give a long presentation.  Everyone got a chance

to move around to learn about each disorder and they could ask questions they may have

about our disorder.  I felt like we got to present the information on a personal level and it

was fun!

I thought that at times the room became loud when everyone was talking about

their disorder at the same time.  If we had more room, this may not have been a problem.

I also thought that we needed to manage our time a little better.  We had a timer to do so,

but we did not stop when it went off.  Maybe we should have practiced our presentations

so that they would have been timed and this would not have occurred.  Our group

realized at the end that we did not get to hear one another’s presentations, so we should

have figured out a way that we could have learned about the other disorders as well.

I learned that there is a whole lot of preparation that is involved when teaching

material and sometimes teachers have to research and learn about the material themselves

before they teach it to their students.  Teaching is an ongoing learning process!

I found out that after I research and find out information that I need to practice

saying it aloud so that I can talk about it and teach it in a way that is understandable to

others.  I didn’t realize that I needed to practice how I word information until I practiced

talking about it at home.  It is very important to practice teaching so you can learn how to

present it in the best way possible!  Sometimes you even find out that you need to go

back and read and learn about something again!
 

Individual Assessment

I thought that I did a good job researching the information that I presented about

Social Anxiety Disorder.  I realized that I may have needed to practice going over my

information at home a couple more times, before I presented because I realized that I

became more familiar and helped the audience understand my information a lot better

when I got to the third group (after I had gone over it a couple of times).  I wish that I

found out more information that would be helpful for teachers such as handouts.
 

Group Assessment

I think that overall our group worked very well together.  I think that we

communicated with one another very well and when someone in our group came up with

an idea we were very positive and excited about it.  When we met everyone was on top of

things and came to work.  I think that overall our group worked very well together.

Everyone had awesome input to give to the presentation and a great attitude about it!  I

enjoyed working with the people in my group.