Psychwire Q&A – Social Anxiety in Teens
For young people, social anxiety can be a debilitating illness that can become chronic if left untreated.
Every part of life for adolescents with social anxiety becomes fraught and the impact on parents and siblings should not be underestimated. Estimated to affect up to 3.5 percent of children and 13 percent of adults, social anxiety is the fear of being judged, criticized or rejected by others.
Recently Psychwire invited me to answer questions about Teen Social Anxiety, you can find the Q & A by clicking here!
Feeling Shy? You Are Not Alone
I was asked to write an article on anxiety for a very cool magazine called KidSpirit an award-winning, non-profit magazine by and for 11-to-17-year-olds to explore life’s big questions in a spirit of open inquiry. They chose the topic of “Fear and Anxiety” for their summer issue. I wrote an autobiographical piece on my own social anxiety, the most common type of anxiety there is. If you, or someone you know suffers from social anxiety, read on and please share this article with others who might benefit from it.
That’s me, kissing my pet guinea pig in first grade. As you might be able to guess from this picture, I was a very quiet and shy little girl.
When teachers instructed students to read out loud in class, I shrank down in my chair, hoping and praying I wouldn’t be called on. If you were to ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I probably would have said, “invisible.” Since starting conversations with people I did not already know made me anxious, I had a hard time making friends. Although I was a good student, my 10th grade English teacher gave me a “D” because I wasn’t participating enough in classroom discussions.
Judged, Criticized and Rejected
The fear I had is called social anxiety, and it is one of the most common types of anxiety that there is. It is a fear of being judged, criticized, and rejected by others. Feeling this way from time to time doesn’t cause problems, but when we’re socially anxious a lot of the time it can really get in the way of making friends, succeeding in school, and being happy and confident. The good news is, social anxiety can be overcome. When we understand where the fear comes from, we can see how to respond to it. Continue Reading…
