Social anxiety disorder, also called social phobia, is something far beyond the general nervousness or discomfort in public situations which most people have experience of. People suffering from a social anxiety disorder are anxious and self-conscious to an extreme degree in day-to-day life situations, whether they are facing a crowd or one person. They have an excessive fear of being watched and judged by other people, and such crippling, intense and chronic fear often lead to emotional turmoil as well as physical ailments.

Report shows that a stagerring 15 million Americans are currently suffering social anxiety disorder. Because of its resemblance to the general public nervousness type, many people feel like a self test to help them make sure whether their condition is an anxiety disorder or simply nervousness. If you are one of these people, you may like to go through the following test and share your results with an anxiety specialist.

1. Check your symptoms: - Are you constantly and extremely fearful of being judged by others? - Do you often have the worry that you will be laughed at with whatever you are doing? - Are you feared that your trembing, sweating or blushings will let out the signs of your anxiety? - Do you realise that your fear is excessive or ungrounded?

2. Do you experience any of the followings when confronted with a feared situation: - extreme uneasiness - a panic attack, during which you suffer an intense and acute fear which is also accompanied by physical discomforts such as racing heart, shortness in breath, chest pain, dizziness, sweating, trembling, nausea or diarrhea, numbness, cold or hot flashes. - Do you intentionally try to avoid your feared situation as much as you can? - Is your fear an extreme one that it even stops you persuing your daily life?

3. With regard to accompanying symptoms: - Have you changed your sleeping or eating habits recently? - Do you often find life meaningless and your efforts worthless? - Do you often feel sad, depressed or extremely guilty for something?

4. In the past year, have you experienced one of the followings as a result of alcohol or drug abuse: - inability to fulfill work, study or family responsibilities. - dangerous situation, such as driving a car under the influence. - being arrested. - continued abuse of alcohol or drug despite the problems caused to you or yours.

As you can tell, the social anxiety disorder self test is designed in a way to evaluate your emotional and physical sypmtoms, your perception towards social interaction, and whether you also have other conditions (such as depression or substance abuse) which may complicate the diagnosis of anxiety disorder. The results will be more accurate if you answer all questions without trying to hide the truth. If most of your answers to the tests are positive, it is highly likely that you will need the professional help from a doctor. In fact, there is no need to shy away from the doctors. With the number of the victims today, you can assure yourself that you are just one of the many many cases out there. In the treatment of anxiety disorders, and social anxiety disorders in particular, the role of medical professionals is just as important as the drugs.

Copyright (c) 2008 Sandy Adamson