Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Definition
It's normal to feel nervous in some social situations. Going on a date or giving a presentation may give you that feeling of having butterflies in your stomach, for instance. This isn't social anxiety disorder.
In social anxiety disorder, everyday interactions cause extreme fear and self-consciousness. It may become impossible for you to eat with acquaintances or write a check in public, let alone go to a party with lots of strangers. If your life is disrupted by this kind of fear, you may have social anxiety disorder.
If you or a loved one has social anxiety disorder, take heart. Effective treatment — often with cognitive behavioral therapy, medication and positive coping skills — can improve the symptoms of social anxiety disorder and open up new opportunities.
- Social phobia (social anxiety disorder). In: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV-TR. 4th ed. Arlington, Va.: American Psychiatric Association; 2000. http://www.psychiatryonline.com. Accessed June 11, 2009.
- Hollander E, et al. Social phobia (social anxiety disorder). In: Hales RE, et al., eds. The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Psychiatry. 5th ed. Arlington, Va.: American Psychiatric Association; 2008. http://www.psychiatryonline.com. Accessed June 11, 2009
- Bruce TJ, et al. Social anxiety disorder. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed June 11, 2009.
- Phobic disorders. The Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals. http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec15/ch196/ch196e.html. Accessed June 11, 2009.
- Social phobia (social anxiety disorder). National Institute of Mental Health. http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/social-phobia-social-anxiety-disorder/index.shtml#SocialPhobia. Accessed June 11, 2009.
- Feldman MD, et al. Phobias. In: Ferri FF. Ferri's Clinical Advisor 2009. St. Louis, Mo.: Mosby; 2008: http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/142893743-5/851356429/1701/448.html#4-u1.0-B978-0-323-04134-8..50019-7--subchapter28_9560. Accessed June 11, 2009.
- Abramowitz JS. Self-help cognitive-behavioral therapy with minimal therapist contact for social phobia: A controlled trial. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry. 2009;40:98.
- Ebell MH. Diagnosis of anxiety disorders in primary care. American Family Physician. 2008;78:501.
- Whiteside SP (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. June 17, 2009.
Find Mayo Clinic on