MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS SERIES
Four of the Most Common Phobias — Spiders, Snakes, Heights, and Social Anxiety Disorder
17th day of May— Social anxiety disorder is one of the common phobias and I’ve had it all my life.
What are you afraid of? Some would say they’re not afraid of anything and others would say they’re afraid of everything. And some don’t really know what they’re afraid of!
I’ll tell you what I’m afraid of and have been my entire life….fear of ‘being seen’ and ‘fear of rejection’ and ‘fear of people’ in general. These fears can be lumped into one phobia: SOCIAL ANXIETY DISORDER. I’ll get back to that in a minute, first I want to let you know what the most common phobias are out of the 400 or so that are recognized as phobias. Take a look at the source listed below for the complete list and maybe you’ll find out what you’re afraid of, if anything.
List of Phobias A-Z: Most Common Fears, Types & More Source: The Recovery Village
The following are some of the most common phobias prevalent among people in the United States:
Agoraphobia (Fear of a situation where escape may be difficult)
There are over 400 recognized phobias, but the most common ones are fear of spiders, snakes, and heights.
SOCIAL ANXIETY DISORDER (SAD)
Social anxiety disorder, otherwise known as Social Phobia, is characterized by a fear of being judged or evaluated negatively by other people in social situations, or of embarrassing one’s self in front of others. Social anxiety disorder is the third most common mental disorder, affecting upwards 5–12% of the general population at some point in life. Source: Columbia University Clinic
Sounds simple, right? Seems better than a phobia of nature such as spiders or snakes. Or having a phobia about a situation you find yourself in such as heights or flying or small spaces. Also better than a phobia about becoming a victim such as with an injection or germs.
It’s not better. Those phobias of nature, situations, and being victimized are usually temporary. A person with claustrophobia only experiences the symptoms of this phobia when they find themselves in a small space. But once they have space again, the panic calms down and they can get back to normal.
A person with SAD lives with it continually, let me illustrate from my own life with a personal story.
7th grade was the beginning of my awakening into the nightmare of social anxiety. Mr. Wiley, the typing teacher (yes, old typewriters with keys and ink), had sort of an ongoing contest, maybe it was to quiet us down, maybe he just didn’t know what else to do, I don’t really know. He had a wastebasket by his desk and we were challenged to ‘make a basket’ with the crumpled up papers that were typing practice. The rules were that anyone that didn’t make a basket had to go into the hall, bend over, and receive a swat on the behind with a wide wooden paddle.
Looking back, I think that he was sorry he ever started that kind of thing with us. You see, we started to have our own contests to see who could get the most swats. There was always crumpled up paper everywhere on the classroom floor, I hope the janitor had a handy picker upper when he was cleaning up our mess!
Anyway, it happened one day as we were sitting in typing class, that it was completely silent for once. But then, all of a sudden, everyone was erupting in laughter, loud and raucous.
Someone had let out a rude fart, loud and unexpected!
Seventh graders love that sort of thing, especially the boys. It was talked about for weeks and the one who did it should have become the most popular girl in school, but instead she was ignored and scoffed at.
You see, the girl was me and forever thereafter, I had high anxiety and even fear in the presence of people. Social anxiety disorder. There’s a lot more to the story, but I consider this event to be the one that ruined my social life forever after.
I’ve not told that story to anyone in my whole life. It was embarrassing and humiliating, and probably nobody thought anything of it after a week or so. But I’ve remembered and marked it as the beginning of my social problems. Here are some of life's experiences for me in high school, college, and adulthood.
— scared to speak up in class — couldn’t look people in the eyes — wasn’t asked out on dates — was avoided — mostly spent time alone — didn’t fit in anywhere — wondered why nobody talked to me — couldn’t keep a friend
Enough! I could list probably hundreds more, but that’ll do for now. I think you likely get the idea. Social Anxiety Disorder was very difficult to deal with in my early life, especially because I didn’t receive help for it. It worsened over time and I never would’ve labeled it as SAD if not for counseling and diagnosis later on in life.
If you’ve read this and can relate to any of the symptoms that I’ve described, I encourage you to seek professional help, whether it be your regular doctor, a counselor, or mental health professional. Maybe you can ‘catch’ it far earlier than I did and lead a happy and fulfilled life.
Thank you for reading today’s Mental Health Awareness article. Stay tuned for another tomorrow. In case you missed the previous articles on mental health awareness, you can find them here.
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