Social Phobia Arrrrgh!

Arrrrgh · Newbie User Joined: Mar 27, 2005 Posts: 12 Location: Japan

Anyone else cringe at the words "social phobia"? I like "social anxiety disorder" much better. Actually, come to think of it they both suck!! Something about disorder sounds more medical than phobia to me though. "Phobia" is more shameful to me if that makes any sense. It's like, at least in my head, that people can come out and say they have depression or some other disorder and everyone feels sorry for them, and granted depression sucks too, but if I come out and say "hey Bob, I've got Social Phobia! I think I'll just stay home tonight" then "Bob" is probably going to think I'm a real weirdo. Oh well, I guess I am...who cares. Smile

FruitLooPs · Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 1:06 pm Post subject:

Yeah I dont like it either, makes it seem worse than it is in my case (probably not the case for most of you others though).

In the end we all just fall into the box thats been laid out by psychologists at one point in time. I try to think of it as a sliding scale, with us being at one more exteme and hence meeting the criteria for this 'disorder' - for some people they move up and down the scale alot through life and some not so much.

For me i'm barely in the SA/SP criteria but i've been there for along time, so i may move away from it or might just stay where I am - time will tell. Smile

Of course in reality its not quite as simple as a sliding scale, but it's easier to visualise this way haha.

LilMissTragic · Expert User Joined: Sep 05, 2004 Posts: 803

I actually prefer phobia. Everyone has phobia's so it doesn't actually sound that bad. Social anxiety disorder makes it sound like its a really bad mental health problem and people seem to think people with so called mental disorders are all fruitloops.

ppaul · Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 2:57 pm Post subject:

gotta say i prefer social anxiety. sounds more like a disorder rather than simpl being afraid of something.

im more than just afraid of it, but at the same time i want it.

for example as if i i had arachnophobia..id be afrai of spiders, but iwouoldnt want to go rolling around in a pile of spiders.

thats where "social anxiety" is different. we all want to be socialbe we all want to have friends but we are anxious. we are anxious about something we want.

phonbia is about being afraid of something which is not really beneficial to us anyway......spiders, snakes, heights, enclosed paces????? they dont make people happy.
but friends family, relationships and love do make people feel happier.

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AnnaMaria · Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 4:31 pm Post subject:

I like "phobia" better.

It sort of simplifies this complex disorder. Makes people understand it better.

Danfalc · Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 4:42 pm Post subject: I hate both of them

*grumbles* I hate both of them and wish they never existed *plugs fingers in ears and sulks* Laughing

kattness · Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 10:49 pm Post subject: Re: I hate both of them

Nightshade · Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 10:30 am Post subject:

Well for me I'm just grateful that it has a name. It has to be called something I guess.

I've had problems with it in some situations since I was about 7 and I'm 33 now. That's a long time to think that you are a freak but you can't work out why and to feel like you're totally alone in this weirdness and suffering. I'd rather have a clumsy label than no idea what was wrong and what I could do about it.

Social phobia is shorter to write and say (which is why I tend to use it more). And people do know what phobias are, (although they may not understand the difference between being a bit afraid or nervous about something and having an irrational and nearly uncontrollable reaction despite everything you try and do to stop it). It does associate the problem with other phobias which I think might help understanding.

Social anxiety disorder indictes nicely that this problem is an extension of something that is normal and in fact healthy (some anxiety in some social situations) that has gone over a line to where it is enough of a problem to be labelled "disorder". I don't like the abbreviation SAD because there is seasonal affective disorder as well.

If you take the word social out, there is a difference between saying you have a phobia and saying you have an anxiety disorder. Saying you have a phobia means you are afraid of a specific thing. Saying you have an anxiety disorder implies to me that you have an ongoing and general problem managing anxiety.

As a general term I think that anxiety disorder is better for me than phobia - I seem to have had a succession of phobias of different things. So I might have an individual phobia (or 2 or 3...) at any one time, but overall, I seem to have an ongoing problem managing anxiety. I put all this work into beating one fear, and then I find that there is something else that has developed that is just as bad. I've had several different social things, some which I have beaten and some which I haven't yet, as well as non-social phobias.

Incidentally, I don't know that social phobia is more debilitating than other phobias, but it must be the hardest to treat because you cannot control your exposure to the things that cause anxiety (WHY OH WHY won't people behave in a reliable and predictable manner at all times... Confused

oh dammit, it's because we're human not robots).

As long as nobody ever tries to put the word "personality" in front of the word "disorder" and label me with it, I'm reasonably happy. I've always disliked that term.