As we grow in life, we are all exposed to undesirable circumstances. Though these situations may make us anxious at first, they are typically minor inconveniences that are soon forgotten. However, what happens when a person begins to lose control over their life because of constant unreasonable worries? Such a problem has become widespread in the U.S and other western countries. In fact, anxiety disorders are the most common form of mental illness in the U.S, measured at an alarming 18% prevalence rate. Social anxiety is just one of the many types of anxiety disorders, and surveys conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health show that up to 7.4% of people in the U.S. or western areas suffer from it in any given year (Comer, 2015).
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In addition to typical worries that everyone experiences, fears of performing ordinary tasks such as talking with people, ordering food, or simply answering questions in class are all magnified to the point of being irrational and preventing the person from functioning properly. Social Anxiety Disorder, labeled number 300.23 in the DSM, was previously referred to as a “Social Phobia” in past editions of the DSM, because of the wide range in which it manifests itself in people (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Social anxiety typically shows its first onset around ages 10 through 13. It is possible to develop during adulthood, albeit rarely (American Psychiatric Association, …show more content…
Online vs. offline safety behaviours in social anxiety”, covered how people with high levels of social anxiety feel safer online, where their true identities can be kept secret. A correlation was conducted and results showed that “the extent to which anonymity and asynchronicity were viewed as important … was associated with less fear of negative evaluation when interacting with others online” (Kamalou, Shaughnessy, and Moscovitch, 2016, p.138). Another article, “Psychophysiological responses to a virtual reality scenario for the treatment of social anxiety”, suggested how virtual reality can be used to treat social anxiety by exposing subjects to a realistic but safe environment. The experiment involved participants reading two texts in front of 3 virtual judges who watched and reacted to them, while their heart-rate, skin conductance levels, and startle reflexes were measured. Participants who were rated as highly anxious had higher anxiety responses during the simulation (Esteves, Claudio, Carmo and Gaspar,
In addition to typical worries that everyone experiences, fears of performing ordinary tasks such as talking with people, ordering food, or simply answering questions in class are all magnified to the point of being irrational and preventing the person from functioning properly. Social Anxiety Disorder, labeled number 300.23 in the DSM, was previously referred to as a “Social Phobia” in past editions of the DSM, because of the wide range in which it manifests itself in people (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Social anxiety typically shows its first onset around ages 10 through 13. It is possible to develop during adulthood, albeit rarely (American Psychiatric Association, …show more content…
Online vs. offline safety behaviours in social anxiety”, covered how people with high levels of social anxiety feel safer online, where their true identities can be kept secret. A correlation was conducted and results showed that “the extent to which anonymity and asynchronicity were viewed as important … was associated with less fear of negative evaluation when interacting with others online” (Kamalou, Shaughnessy, and Moscovitch, 2016, p.138). Another article, “Psychophysiological responses to a virtual reality scenario for the treatment of social anxiety”, suggested how virtual reality can be used to treat social anxiety by exposing subjects to a realistic but safe environment. The experiment involved participants reading two texts in front of 3 virtual judges who watched and reacted to them, while their heart-rate, skin conductance levels, and startle reflexes were measured. Participants who were rated as highly anxious had higher anxiety responses during the simulation (Esteves, Claudio, Carmo and Gaspar,