 There's been this nasty little rumor going around over on Twitter that social anxiety is not a real thing. So I thought, what the hell, let's get back to the origins of this channel and let's talk some mental health. What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. And if you're new to my channel, I am somebody who is very passionate about mental health. I am somebody who has a lot of personal experience with anxiety, depression, addiction, and other issues. And I like to make videos about that. So if you're into that stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. But before I get started, full disclaimer, I am not a licensed professional. Like I said, I am somebody who has a lot of experience with this. I have worked at an addiction treatment center where we specialize in dual diagnosis, where I taught groups and I met with clients in a one-on-one fashion. But if you are struggling with social anxiety, anxiety, depression, or any sort of mental illness, please, please, please do yourself a favor, go out and get help. I might do some videos on my own personal struggles with social anxiety because I'm somebody who had crippling social anxiety and through different coping skills and therapy and things like that, I now can speak in front of audiences of over 100 people. No problem. YouTube channel grow by making videos and everything like that. So if you want to hear my story about dealing with social anxiety and my struggles, let me know down in the comments below. But anyways, there will be some resources down in the description and in the pinned comment if you're somebody struggling with social anxiety, but you're always more than welcome to go talk to your doctor, call your insurance company, and see what they can recommend. All right. So like I said in this title, in this video, we are going to be talking about the social must know signs and symptoms of social anxiety disorder. All right. So what is this? What is this little guy I have here? So although I am not a licensed therapist, anybody can pick one of these things up. This is the DSM, the diagnostic and statistical manual. This is the book that is used by mental health professionals, medical professionals to list symptoms of various disorders. Now, basically, like when you're listening symptoms, like it's, I don't agree with the idea that we should put people in a box of like just a diagnosis. But what this is, this is kind of a tool that mental health and medical professionals can use to see like what kind of symptoms you're struggling with. So they can help give you the best treatment possible, right? So I'm going to be going over the various symptoms of social anxiety disorder as listed by the diagnostic statistical manual number five. I think they're working on number six, which should be coming out this year or the next year. All right. Symptom number one, marked fear or anxiety about one or more social situations in which the individual is exposed to possible scrutiny by others. So yeah, usually with all of these disorders in the DSM, you have to meet a certain amount for a certain period of time to even get diagnosed with one of these. But this first one is talking about having like an intense fear or anxiety in a situation where people might judge you, right? So that's why, you know, going to parties might be an issue. Public speaking might be an issue. Going out in public might be an issue because of that overwhelming fear that you're going to be judged. Symptom number two, the individual fears that he or she will act in a way or show anxiety symptoms that will be negatively evaluated. So what that's saying is anxiety is a bunch of thought traps, right? So by worrying about what people are thinking about you, you develop symptoms of anxiety, which then in turn, you're worried about people noticing those symptoms of anxiety and therefore judging you even more, like with a lot of different forms of mental illness, like there's a lot of different thought traps that we can get stuck in, which ends up making it worse if we do not get help. Symptom number three, the social situations almost always provoke fear or anxiety. So what this is saying is like, this isn't just like some random type of deal, right? It's not just when you're public speaking. It's not just when, you know, you have to do something like that. Like this is something that is regular when you're going into social situations. Symptom number four, the social situations are avoided or endured with intense fear or anxiety. Yes, yes, yes. A lot of people who struggle with social anxiety, they isolate, they isolate a lot. And I've done videos in the past about how it's, it's this thing that makes it even worse. So what I'm saying is, is when you isolate and you don't want to go out with friends or the social situations because of your social anxiety, it ends up creating more anxiety because based on evolutionary psychology, we know as people we are meant to connect with others. When we are further from the tribe, we end up getting more anxious. Okay. So if you're avoiding social situations because of this fear, that's one of the symptoms. Next symptom, the fear or anxiety is out of proportion to the actual threat posed by the social situation and to the socio-cultural context. So what this is saying is like anxiety is part of our limbic system. Okay. This is the most powerful part of the brain because it's what helped us survive back in the cave mandates. It helped us avoid like things that were life threatening. So what this is saying is your social anxiety is disproportionate to the situation. Like you feel if you go to a party or if you speak in public, you will die. All right. That is what your mind is telling you because your amygdala is firing off stress hormones saying, yo, danger, danger, danger. Okay. So it is out of proportion. Like the chances of you like going and doing like some public speaking and like a mob just coming and like, you know, just like rushing you or something like that is not realistic. But one of the symptoms is that you're afraid of that. All right. Next symptom, the fear, anxiety or avoidance is persistent, typically lasting for six months or more. So this is a key one, right? So it's not just like this one occasion or one off, like this is something that's ongoing. You've been isolating for months. You've been avoiding situations for months. You keep making excuses at work about why you can't do presentations or maybe it's like you're in school and you have to do some speaking there and you keep avoiding this for six months or more. Next symptom, the fear, anxiety or avoidance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning. So because of what you're dealing with with social anxiety, it is affecting your life. All right. So it is affecting your work. Like for example, if you get fired because part of your job is speaking in front of groups, that's an issue or if part of your job is going out and meeting with clients and things like that, but you have social anxiety. So it's drawing you back from it and it's causing issues with your work. That's a problem. It's causing issues in your relationship because maybe your boyfriend or girlfriend or husband or wife or whoever your significant other is, is inviting you out to social situations and you keep avoiding them. It's affecting your relationships. And that's one of the things about mental illness as a whole is that it starts to affect different aspects of your life. Like if you're wondering if you need therapy, like that's what you need to look at. Like how is it negatively affecting important things in my life? How is it preventing me from growing, right? Because something that, you know, I always wanted to do since I got sober and everything like I wanted to help people. I wanted to speak in front of audiences, whether it was, you know, working at the treatment center or doing this YouTube channel. So my social anxiety used to hold me back from something that I'm really passionate about. Next symptom, the fear, anxiety or avoidance is not attributed to the physiological effects of a substance or another medical condition. Okay, this is huge. So just so you know, like in most cases, in most cases, you can not get properly diagnosed with any mental illness if you're abusing substances. Like there's a reason why they're called mind-altering substances. Okay, so what this is saying is like it is null and void if you're only anxious while you're getting high. For example, I'm actually recording this on 420. I haven't smoked since I got sober. So it's been like over seven years, but whenever I smoked weed, I would get extremely paranoid and extremely anxious. So they couldn't diagnose me with social anxiety disorder. If I was smoking weed, because smoking weed always made me anxious. All right, so the next symptom is the fear, anxiety or avoidance is not better explained by the symptoms of another mental disorder, such as panic disorder, body dysmorphic disorder or autism spectrum disorder. So one of the difficult things about diagnosing any mental illness at all, just from my experience, talking with others and research that I've done is mental illness is extremely difficult to diagnose because so many things overlap and that's what it's talking about. So if you've been diagnosed with, let's say autism spectrum disorder, there are many people who struggle with autism spectrum disorder, who struggle with social anxiety as well, because part of that disorder is having difficulties reading social cues. So going into social situations can then lead to social anxiety. So if you have autism spectrum disorder, that's the primary diagnosis. And secondary, you might also struggle with some social anxiety, but they would diagnose you with autism spectrum disorder rather than social anxiety disorder. All right. And the last and final symptom is if another medical condition, for example, Parkinson's disease, obesity, disfigurement from burns or injury is persistent, the fear, anxiety or avoidance is clearly unrelated or as excessive. All right. So what that's saying is, is it can be possible that your anxiety is because of your physical appearance. So like obesity or if you have some kind of like injury or burns or anything like that, and that's what it's stemming from. But it also mentions body dysmorphic disorder, which is really important because body dysmorphic disorder is you are not seeing yourself as other people are seeing you. So, for example, in a different world where I was much skinnier and I imagined I was this big, right? I'd have social anxiety around how I looked, but that was part of my body dysmorphic disorder. All right. So anyways, I hope this helps explain what social anxiety disorder is, the signs and the symptoms. If you can relate to these symptoms, do not diagnose yourself. Never ever, ever diagnose yourself, go see a mental health professional, talk to your doctor, find a therapist, talk to a psychologist, a psychiatrist, talk to your insurance company, see who they can recommend. Do something, get help. If you know that you need help with your social anxiety, like just call up a therapist, set an appointment. There is help. Like I cannot stress to you enough. I am somebody who used to struggle with social anxiety that was absolutely crippling. And now like it is ninety nine point nine percent gone. So if I can get through it, you can get through it too. But it took work. All right. Again, there are some resources down in the description below. If there are any other topics that you want me to talk about in regards to social anxiety, please let me know. I am going to do one on public speaking and some tips and tools behind that because I had to do a lot for my own mental health to be able to public speak. All right. But anyways, that's all I got for this video. If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell and a huge, huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon. You are all amazing. And if you would like to help support the channel and get involved in our monthly Q&A and get some other perks and benefits, you can click or tap right there on the Patreon icon right there. Oh, don't forget all of you current patrons. Make sure you go check out the Patreon website or app because I put up April's Q&A. All right. Thanks again so, so much for watching. I'll see you next time.