Common Markers of Social Anxiety Attacks

According to studies, people suffer from social anxiety attacks at least once in their lives. This can be triggered by a lot of factors like: intense fear of being scrutinized; worrying over what possible mishaps may happen; or fretting over other concerns which makes the person agitated, distracted and even uncommunicative. However, these “attacks” can usually be blown over by being with supportive friends and family members at the same gathering; or being at ease that nothing untoward is going to happen; or simply putting the person’s mind at rest with constant assurances.

On the other hand, for people with social phobia (or the extreme form of social anxiety,) social anxiety attacks can only be eased when that person is removed from the social gathering altogether. The longer the person stays within the said social setup, the more difficult it is for him or her to function normally, or to function at all. These attacks can be triggered by a lot of irrational or excessive fears which may lead to other medical conditions like depression. In other cases, people with social phobia take different substances (like alcohol or drugs) to ease the symptoms of these anxiety attacks – which in the long run, can lead to substance abuse or dependency.

What are the common physical symptoms of social anxiety attacks?

People under stress react differently, and the same is true for people who have social anxiety and social phobia. Depending on a lot of factors like: the present mental health of the person; the “event” or social situation that person is in; and the people around that person (i.e. friends, acquaintances, total strangers, etc.) social anxiety attacks can range from mild to severe. A person with social phobia may suffer from one, two, more or all of the common physical symptoms of anxiety attacks.

Some of the common markers of these attacks include:

• Excessive sweating (hyperhidrosis) or excessive fidgeting that causes the person to sweat and be ill at ease with the situation.
• Frequent blushing and being constantly at loss with words. This can also be mistaken as shyness.
• Heart palpitations.
• Stammering.
• Trembling and uncontrolled body movements (like facial tics or involuntary jerking of limbs.)
• Nausea and even vomiting.

Unfortunately, in such scenarios, the more the person knows that he or she is showing symptoms of anxiety attacks, the more these symptoms increase in intensity. This may even become more complicated as time passes, since the person is now trying to find ways to “escape” his or her situation.

For example: an agitated man who is suffering from excessive sweating may find himself literally drenched… which increases his worry about people noticing this… which increases his body temperature more… which makes him suffer from uncontrollable sweating more… which increases his anxiety more. And so on and so forth. He could then prefer to remove himself from the social gathering, and future social events, which causes him to become depressed when he is alone. Or, he could start reaching for the bottle. This too, is a way of “escaping” from the embarrassment caused by his anxiety attack.

Unfortunately, for people with social phobias, these social anxiety attacks do not end with seclusion. These “incidents” are replayed over and over in their minds, causing them to further withdraw inwards.

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