Anxiety vs Social Anxiety

Anxiety vs. Social Anxiety: What’s the Difference?

Anxiety is the body’s natural response to perceived danger. It can be useful when experienced in short and infrequent episodes, but when it becomes a frequent flyer in our central nervous system it can indicate a clinical anxiety disorder. The most common types of anxiety disorders are Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and Social Anxiety Disorder/Social Phobia.

Non-disordered anxiety looks like worrying about a single primary issue for a short duration of less than six months (e.g. stressing about moving into a new home for the month or two leading up to the move).

Generalized Anxiety Disorder involves excessive or near-constant worry about a wide range of issues and lasting for a period of at least six months (e.g. worrying about health, and school, and friends, and the weather, and traffic, and running late, and boss being mad, and…). The key symptoms of clinical anxiety are restlessness, fatigue, trouble relaxing, and trouble concentrating. The core issue in GAD is intolerance of uncertainty (Dugas et al., 2005).

Social Anxiety is characterized by preoccupation with being judged by others. People who struggle with Social Anxiety and not GAD aren’t really anxious and worrying about lots of different things. The primary concern here is, “What will other people think about me?” This anxiety can be experienced in different levels of intensity, but at its worst, Social Anxiety can be crippling and can result in isolation for fear of being judged by others. A 2023 study found that people with Social Anxiety more often fear embarrassment and internalize negative experiences than those with GAD (Özdemir & Kuru, 2023).

While it is possible to experience both disorders at the same time, treatment differs for Generalized Anxiety and Social Anxiety. It is important to discuss all of your symptoms with your therapist so that they can determine which treatments will be the most effective for your specific presentation of anxiety.

References

  • Dugas, M. J., et al. (2005). Intolerance of uncertainty and worry. Behavior Research and Therapy, 43(8), 1051–1063.

  • Özdemir, İ., & Kuru, E. (2023). Cognitive distortions in GAD and SAD. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 12(19), 6351.

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