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What does social anxiety look like in everyday life?

Oct 29 9:00am | Lisa Speckhard Pasque, Mayo Clinic editor | @lisasp | Comments (1)

Listen to our latest episode: 72. Surviving social anxiety with Natalie Sue

Ever felt awkward in a meeting or anxious at a party? You're not alone. Host Dr. Denise Millstine is joined by author Natalie Sue and psychologist Dr. Craig Sawchuk to discuss Natalie’s book HOPE THIS FINDS YOU WELL, which features a protagonist with social anxiety. The conversation delves into how anxiety manifests in everyday interactions, explains coping mechanisms like avoidance and alcohol use, and emphasizes that social anxiety is common, treatable — and often misunderstood.

Question for discussion:

  • What does social anxiety look like in everyday life?
    Can you think of situations where someone might experience it without realizing it’s a clinical issue?

Share your thoughts, questions and opinions below!

1 Reaction

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Scott R L | @scottrl | Oct 29 6:48pm

I've always been an introvert. Over the years I learned to cope with it in most social situations. I'd be okay, I just needed quiet time afterwards.

However, after I had a stroke on Christmas Eve, 2019, I became very isolated socially. Now I find that my introversion is starting to look like agoraphobia.

Because I'm a big guy with a slight defect in my legs that gives me an awkward walk, I've been stared at all my life. But now I don't like being stared at because of my disability. I get jumpy when people are too close (like within half a mile -- just kidding). The noise of people around me, especially behind me, makes me extremely tense.

I'm claustrophobic, too, so I try to avoid being around people in tight spaces. That was true before the stroke. I remember touring the submarine USS Bowfin at Pearl Harbor; after about 15 minutes, I needed to get out of that big suffocating coffin *right freaking now*, but it was too crowded to move swiftly. I made it out, just barely.

Just recently, I was at a group lunch where a retired flight attendant was very close to me while talking to some other people. He is used to conversing in tight spaces; he'd done it professionally for his career. But I wanted him to *get away from me*. I kept resisting the urge to stand up and push him really hard. After that, I'm not likely to do another such a lunch for a long time.

How's that for social anxiety?

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