To think social anxiety is one of the worst mental health problems you can have and is very misunderstood.

[Ginandchoc]

I have social anxiety- chronic.

I have friends who have OCD / anxiety and I find people have so much more empathy for those mental health issues. With the few people I've shared that I have social anxiety a few have said you've always been like that / you just need to speak/ your problem is you're too quiet etc

Im not saying social anxiety is more worse than another mental health problem but I think the profound negative impact it can have on someone's life is really not acknowledged seriously.

It's had a massive impact on my life- it's effects permeate into all areas of my life and has moulded my life into what it is today. I have forever been in low paid entry level jobs because I don't do well in interviews or I fear there is too much interaction in higher paid jobs. This has resulted in me never really earning much and constantly being skint.

It's a really shit thing to have. I'm not just quiet/ rude/ stuck up/ boring. I'm dying inside.

I think it can have a huge effect on people's lives, but no, I don't think it is one of the worst mental health problems.

Stompythedinosaur why not, if you don't mind sharing?

If you mean there's less sympathy for those with social anxiety, then perhaps. It can be seen as simple shyness, when it's much more complex than that.

I've had social anxiety since I was a young teenager, I go through various stages of agoraphobia, I have a half life.

I have it too and it's not fun. I realised recently that I see everyone as a potential threat. I only feel safe at home, in the company of a few trusted people. When I do have to socialise I make a complete hash of it as I am so nervous and defensive and people probably think I'm a bitch (but that could be the anxiety talking). I am basically unemployable because I am so shite at interviews.

I don't know if it's worse than other MH issues though. I expect it's often comorbid with other things. I've had severe depression in the past and also have a BPD diagnosis.

No, I don't agree at all that its "one of the worst" mental health conditions. Do you have any knowledge or experience of sever mental health problems and how debilitating they can be? For many of these people holding down any sort of job at all is simply not possible.

I agree social anxiety is hard, however to me your post smacks of making excuses. Apologies if that is it how it is. But, for example, not all high paying jobs require lots of social interaction. If I were you I would stop using social anxiety as an excuse for all aspects of life. If you want to better your situation and get out of low paying jobs I would suggest looking at ways to do that which are within your comfort zone of social interaction.

I think social anxiety tends to be self diagnosed, so of course people take it less seriously. It can of course be crippling, and lead to other issues. Like a PP I became agoraphobic for a long time related to my issues being around other people, feeling not good enough with nothing to say, it still affects me now to a lesser extent, but at one point I didn't leave my flat at all for 3 months. But I was also severely depressed, suicidal in fact, and experienced terrifying periods of mania and paranoid delusions. Those were 'worse' than feeling anxious around people imo. I've had to deal with the social side of my anxiety because I work in a public facing role - I have no choice but to get over it, I need to earn and these are the only type of jobs I can get.

Have you had any therapy OP? Or spoken to your GP about how this is affecting you?

(I just want to add that my social anxiety and BPD are not self diagnosed, but were diagnosed by NHS psychiatrists)

I think it's misunderstood because like a lot of mental illnesses it is over used by self diagnosers. You only have to read this board, 1 in 3 op (not an actual stat) has "I suffer from anxiety" in it somewhere. It was the same with depression or ocd for years, they were used as throw away excuses by non sufferers to explain normal enough personality traits "God I'm so depressed" "I'm a bit ocd like that", as long as people do that then I think genuine sufferers will be effected or not be acknowledged properly because people just start thinking oh another one. I don't think people mean it badly, it's a consequence of twats explaining away their behaviour/what they deem as their own faults with a self diagnosis

I have health anxiety and my life is miserable at the moment, its one symptom after the other and affects every aspect of my life.
I have diziness, headaches, neck ache, tiredness.
I dont think its anything sinister because when i momentarily dont think about it i feel okay but the 90% of the time its at the back of my mind its hell.
Absolutely no one i know understands my struggles and thinks i should just not think about it, like its that easy and all my worries and symptoms will go away.

I don't think it's one of the worst mental health problems either.
Do you have to take awful medication like anti-psychotics that have terrible side effects but you have no choice to take? Have you ever been sectioned? Do you hear voices which tell you to harm yourself? Are you unable to work or live independently? Have you ever had to stay in hospital for months at a time because there's no safe place for them to release you to?
As difficult as social anxiety can be to live with, I don't think it even begins to compare with having something like schizophrenia, does it?

And I think you're over estimating the amount of empathy people have for other mental health issues like anxiety. In my experience people can be just as unempathetic about that. Mental health is something people tend to be very uncomfortable with in general, and even with more severe mental illness there's a distinct lack of sympathy compared to if a person had a physical illness.

Dr wont put me on anti depressants because i am breastfeeding my toddler

LOL no, would say schitzophrenia would be the worst mental condition.

I have several psychiatric diagnoses. One of them is severe social anxiety linked to complex PTSD. One of them is bipolar 1. (There are others too) Social anxiety has never had me legally detained in any way, made me spend thousands of pounds on fuck knows what, made me believe anything particularly 'out there' etc etc.

I have someone very close to me who has schizophrenia, dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality) and severe social anxiety (also linked to cptsd). Funnily enough the anxiety has way less of an impact on their life.

I'm not trying to belittle your experience at all, the worst thing to happen to you is still the worst thing even if it was breaking a nail, but its a huge bit of a stretch to say that social anxiety is 'one of the worst' mental health problems.

I think there tends to be a view that a lot of us have to overcome anxiety in life such as doing things for the first time, things we are not good at, going out of our comfort zone a lot, meeting new people etc. and that people should just get on with it. That’s why I don’t think it is taken as seriously as other MH issues unfortunately.

Is it the worst, no but I understand how sometimes it can appear that way to the person suffering.

for example, not all high paying jobs require lots of social interaction

However ALL jobs require social interaction at the point of interview. It doesn't matter whether or not the job requires it, if you don't interview well it makes no difference how good you are at the job.

Maybe you mean that social anxiety is often poorly understood and people just dismiss it as being nervous before a party, when in fact it can be extremely disabling?

Mental health conditions are not in competition with each other.

I really don’t think it’s helpful to play mental health Top Trumps 🤷🏼‍♀️ mental health problems manifest in all sorts of ways and all have different impacts on life - you have a job, OP, which many many people with mental health issues cannot do at all. I feel for you, anxiety is awful and debilitating - what medication or therapies have you tried? Perhaps it’s worth revisiting your GP to see what else is available. But please, please don’t try and compare yourself to other people with mental health issues. Just try and get help for yourself.

I work with people who have comorbid mental illness and learning difficulties.

No, social anxiety is not one of the worst mental health problems by a very, very long way. However any mental health problem can be life limiting and catastrophic for the sufferer if not correctly handled (and many are even when correctly handled).

Social anxiety is however not in the same ballpark as something like schizophrenia, or some types of bipolar or unstable personality disorders - especially in the cases where people have comorbid psychotic and personality disorders alongside mild learning disabilities...

I currently have a teen son with social anxiety, selective mute and autism and I'd say it's one of the worst things. He currently cant attend school, cant physically speak to anyone who isnt a close family member. I have no idea how on earth he will have a life. In the current situation he wouldn't be able to go to a job or college interview. He wouldn't even be able to apply for benefits as he cant speak and can barely leave the house. It's the anxiety that causes the mutism, the autism isnt such a big issue so I'd say it is one of the worst. Mostly because people dont understand or think its that bad so isnt taken seriously. There seems to be nothing you can do to help.

Sorry, rant there after another stressful morning of not getting him to school and having no idea what I'm supposed to do and the worry of getting into bother with him being a non attender.

I'm not trying to be dismissive of your struggle OP, but no, I don't think it's one of the worst mental health conditions.

When I think of the worst, it's the sort of condition that literally affects every waking moment. Although isolating yourself is not healthy, you presumably get some sort of reprieve from the anxiety when you are not engaging socially. To me, a severe mental health condition is one that exists irrespective of what you do, where you are, and what time of day it is. Existing constantly, with no reprieve.

I have health anxiety and OCD - both formally diagnosed and in treatment for. But I have good moments, and I'm not constantly plagued by it. I'd never say mine was the most severe, because I've been on the other end of the spectrum where each day was a literal struggle to stay alive. I guess having experience of that latter part has given me perspective over the fact what I experience currently isn't quite as bad.

Again, obviously not the worst really but I think really underestimated, not taken seriously because so many people say they have it when really they have no idea of real, life limiting anxiety.

Everybody feels socially anxious sometimes. I realise that some people feel it more than others but even the most confident people feel a little daunted walking into a room full of strangers chatting away to each other.

Have we all got a mental health condition? No. @JanMeyer explains why social anxiety, if it is now being described as a mental health condition rather than ‘a thing every human being experiences sometimes’ doesn’t even come close to eg schizophrenia, which truly ruins lives.

I think psychotic disorders are worse.
But perhaps social anxiety can feel isolating as you basically have to pretend you are normal, whereas with psychosis you are beyond that.