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.

It's certainly difficult to get help for. I saw an analogy the other day - imagine you have a phobia of spiders so you go and see a therapist and the therapist is a spider.

Thank you SqueezyKetchupBottle.

Severe mental illness is awful, but in our case the victims lived and made full physical recoveries. Not everyone is so lucky. Around 10% of homicides are committed by people with the most severe mental health issues, that is schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression with psychosis or delusional disorder.

People suffering these illnesses are not bad people who set out to do harm. They are very vulnerable people, the people least able to advocate for themselves and access the support they need so I do think they should be prioritised where resources are limited, for their sake and for everyone else's.

It's awful, I have it, but it's not the worst MH illness. I've met bi polar & schizophrenic women who have just as many problems & worse because things like hormones, stress etc can tip things even when on their meds & it can take months to get back on track & mean work/family etc is impacted/ falls apart. The one I still think of is partially deaf, schizophrenic, with learning difficulties, she was put in a flat alone & just left to it, with a visit once a week. She cannot cope, forgets her meds & gets sectioned every 4 or 5months: the pattern has been going on for. Her family disappeared off the radar years back/didn't want to know. I think about her all the time.

• that should read: this pattern has been going on for years & years, she's mid 30's.

@ArnoldWhatshisknickers I have a family member who was involved in a similar, extremely high profile case some years back. Much money was spent on legal fees and careful fact manipulation to ensure that the blame was directed away from anyone with money and/or power. It would have been nice if that money had been spent on improving resources, to prevent these kind of situations from arising again.

@ArnoldWhatshisknickers Oops, submitted post too early. What I meant to say, is that in these cases, there is a reluctance to blame it on mental health, because then the professional who missed the severity could be held accountable. It's much easier to label the person involved as being some kind of monster, because then they are automatically the problem.

I understand where you're coming from, but no, because given access to the right therapy and with enough will to keep the appointments and trust the process, it is a treatable condition. You don't have to live like this but you do have to tolerate feeling really uncomfortable repeatedly while you retrain your brain.

Stompythedinosaurwhy not, if you don't mind sharing?

Because there are points of reprieve from the distress, mainly. I don't want to underestimate how awful and inpactful social anxiety can be, because I know it is. But my job brings me into contact with people so depressed they cannot move and become incontinent, people who are psychotic for prolonged periods with very frightening delusions, people with trauma due to horrendous abuse that most of us couldn't imagine etc.

I am slightly regretting posting though. Mental health isn't a competition and I don't want to underestimate the impact anyone.

Social anxiety can be disabling and debilitating and thoroughly miserable. Have you found any treatments or medication that help OP?
How useful is your GP?

I really feel like any statement such as "X is the worst" isn't helpful. I have schizoaffective disorder. It isn't fun, but I don't know that I have it 'worse' than someone with anxiety. I have it different and there is room for us both to struggle with different issues. It isn't a competition, and of course there is huge variety in how any condition affects someone.

My reasoning for it not being 'worst,' is s bit different to others. Social anxiety is in fact treatable, very successfully. I know the treatment isn't easy to access, but it is possible. So there is hope for a full recovery and a future without it.

Reading this thread is so sad to me :( I know it's old but I know people read old posts. Most of you are really horrid in the posts saying things like get over yourself. Most of you claim you know mental health like you know every individual person. Not to mention this poster is on a computer screen people ! Seriously is this world nuts. You don't know this person or what she's going threw. I knew a young lad (my partners best mate) he was signed off worked fully paid for 12 months for mental health issues. In that time he went out tried his hardest and I know that people just thought he was a slacker and playing on it aswell, God even I didn't take it that seriously. He looked a normal lovely very good looking lad with a new gf and older child from previous relationship forced himself out to socialise. He's not here anymore he killed himself !!! Maybe a few years after stopping working as he handed notice in after 12 months. This is what makes me so mad reading this shit on mum's net most of you are not empathetic at all !!! Some people with mental health never fully open up and some people never say they are suicidal even if they are. They aren't shouting voices are telling them to do it, they are going for a pint with the lads they can appear to have a normal life. He had never been sectioned either !! To people saying if you havent been sectioned you aren't that bad. Is killing yourself bad enough!!!!! People kill themselves without ever being sectioned and without telling a soul they are going to do it ! If anything the people that tell you they want to are safer than your quiet friend that just looks shy! Don't pretend to know what's going on in someone's head. Please anyone reading this validate your friend/ family who talk to you about mental health, don't tell them it isn't that bad and they need to get on with it ! And if you have mental health yourself maybe cut people like that out as they aren't helping you !!!! We have to much to learn about mental health non of us really know the ins and outs. I've had a work colleague kill herself aswell. I was with her all the previous week and no one thought that would happen but it did. Also very young pretty and honestly a lovely girl. Please people learn you don't want to say a comment to someone that kills themself a week later. Leave it to the professionals even though a lot of them are shit aswell. Hopefully one day we can do better

@JanMeyer

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.

This

@LadyOfLittleLeisure
Are you agreeing with that post ? Sorry you just put this so not sure

@Mumadof3 yes I agree with that post. I've just realised the thread is quite old but I don't think it's right to say that social anxiety is "one of the worst" mental illnesses. I mean, we shouldn't sit and compare which are the worst and it's not to belittle anyone with social anxiety but I also don't think it can be compared with uncontrolled psychosis or schizophrenia for example.

There is no "worst mental health" problem, just like there is no such thing as Mental Health Top Trumps. Everyone who has a mental health issue has them in varying intensities with often different symptoms despite the same diagnosis.
Social anxiety is very treatable with the right talking therapies. You can't talk your way out of something like schizophrenia or bipolar.

Oh yea im not disagreeing with something like that because it's life long and I have worked with patients with these illnesses myself and also have family members with bipolar. However social anxiety can lead to things such as suicide like alot of mental health conditions so should always be taken just as seriously as any other. Alot of things that are said like calling someone attention seeking or telling them they aren't as bad doesn't validate their feelings and makes their mental health worse. It just makes me sad that there isn't much more knowledge even for myself that has been exposed to alot and I know 100% there is alot more I don't know. I've had psychosis and its very scary. But I also have experienced other symptoms such as social anxiety and I honestly think there is no comparing the two at all. Both could lead to seriously devastating consequences. Don't agree that if someone hasn't been admitted to hospital or aren't on any meds then they aren't a serious case because like I said people kill themselves without any of those things. Also communicating online just isn't real and some people really need to be more mindful of what they say and you don't know whose behind a post and what they are going threw. Or even how old they are.

@Ginandchoc people are being unnecessarily harsh - I think what you really want is some sympathy and acknowledgement of social anxiety.
People in general are judgy (as evidenced on MN) - if you’ve been diagnosed by a doctor they should honestly just nod and make polite noises 😂
I agree with the others though there are worse. BUT all MH is a spectrum. And because so many people seem to suffer from a mild form of something or other it makes it very hard to empathise.

Ops sorry didn’t realise was a zombie thread!