Summary

Social anxiety manifests in subtle ways, including excessive sweating, avoidance of social situations, and difficulty maintaining eye contact.

Abstract

Social anxiety is a mental health condition that can be challenging to recognize, often masquerading as everyday shyness or social discomfort. It is characterized by an intense fear of negative evaluation by others, leading to physiological responses such as heavy sweating, particularly in the palms and armpits. Individuals with social anxiety tend to avoid situations where they might be the center of attention, which paradoxically exacerbates their fear by preventing them from learning how to cope with it. Additionally, they may struggle to maintain appropriate eye contact, which is crucial for effective communication and social bonding. Recognizing these signs is essential for seeking professional help, as therapy can effectively reduce the fear associated with social interactions to a manageable level.

Opinions

The author suggests that caring about others' opinions is natural to a degree, but excessive concern can indicate social anxiety.
It is implied that social anxiety can lead to a debilitating cycle of fear and avoidance, which only serves to reinforce the anxiety.
The author posits that therapy, particularly exposure therapy, is a key component in treating social anxiety by helping individuals confront and eventually habituate to their fears.
The article conveys that eye contact is a significant aspect of social interaction, and difficulties with it can be a telling sign of social anxiety.
There is an underlying message that acknowledging and addressing social anxiety is crucial for personal freedom and the ability to connect authentically with others.

Three Subtle Signs You Have Social Anxiety

Social Anxiety Isn’t Always Obvious

“Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.”

– Lao-Tze, ancient Chinese philosopher and writer

We all wish to be free. Nobody wants to be a prisoner to the opinion of others. Yet, most of us are. And that’s okay.

Living in social environments makes it necessary to care about what others think and feel about you. Otherwise, you would not be able to fit in.

Yet, you can care too much. It’s the same as with everything else: too much of a good thing turns it into a bad thing. You don’t care so much on purpose. But you do know you have to find a way to care less because it affects you in many ways.

However, at a certain point, you may not be able to break out of that yourself. When you desperately try to avoid attention from others and the thoughts about what others may think about you haunt you all the time, you may have social anxiety. Social anxiety is a mental condition that requires professional treatment.

Since it’s not easy to distinguish between social anxiety and regular shyness, here are three giveaway signs you (or people you know) suffer from social anxiety.

#1 You sweat

Sweating heavily is awkward. You think others will notice and judge you. Yet, most of us don’t sweat that much.

If you do sweat when around others even at rest, and you don’t have any physical condition explaining it, chances are high you have social anxiety.

The most common regions of anxious sweating are the palms of the hands and the armpits.

The latter may lead to a vicious circle: social anxiety causes sweating when around others, which makes you anxious others will notice or smell the sweat, which makes you even more anxious, which increases the sweating.

Honestly, if there was only one sign on this list, it would be this one. Increased sweating is a dead giveaway you’re really afraid of something. Constantly being afraid of the attention of others clearly points toward social anxiety.

#2 You avoid

Most of us feel a certain discomfort when we are the center of attention. You monitor your own behavior more consciously:

what am I supposed to say?
Why do I move so awkwardly?
Help, everyone’s staring at me!

When you suffer from social anxiety, those kind of thoughts can be overwhelming. Because these situations are so stressful, it’s natural you’d try to avoid them.

If you never expose yourself situations you’re afraid of, you never practice dealing with the fear.

In turn, your fear will only increase. Plunging into a social situation now becomes even more dreadsome.

That’s why during therapy, you will enter those situations you’re afraid of the most. Then, after terrible initial fear, your brain notices you’re not dying, but rather doing quite well. After some repetition, your fear diminishes to a healthy amount.

“The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” — Nelson Mandela

#3 You can’t keep eye-contact

My college friend group had a crazy yet tested theory: after holding eye contact with somebody for 30 seconds you will either make out with them or start a fight.

Eye contact is powerful. Locking your eyes with somebody can mean two very contrasting things: you’re either deeply in love or you are trying to assert dominance.

Holding it for too long will feel awkward either way. After staring another person in the eye for a while, a physical sensation urges you to break it.

“Eye contact is way more intimate than words will ever be.” — Faraaz Kazi

So, overdoing it with eye contact is awkward. For a good conversation, a balance between eye contact and breaking eye contact has to be found. That usually means holding it for a few seconds and then stopping it for a bit.

Yet, shying away from it constantly makes you look disingenuous, or like you’re having a bad conscience. So total avoidance may harm your ability to connect and communicate with others.

If you do notice yourself having a hard time holding eye contact even with close friends and family, that’s a sign you’re socially anxious.