Social Anxiety Disorder – The Facts
Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD as it’s often referred to) develops from a complex set of risk factors, including genetics, brain chemistry, personality, and life events. It affects around 15 million adults in the US each year. Again, putting this in percentage terms that’s 6.8% of the population. That’s more than 1 in every 15 adults who suffer from SAD. It’s not gender specific and is equally as common in men as it is in women. It usually starts in younger years – typically the very early teenage years. But here’s the big fact … 36% of those suffering from a social anxiety disorder do so for more than 10 years before seeking help!
Now the big question … does that represent your situation. Have you been affected by Paruresis for many years and done nothing about it? Have you kept it quiet, hidden it and not sought out help for the condition? I’m guessing the answer but now you know that you don’t have to go through it any more because these forms of disorder are treatable and often the treatment is easier than you may think.
Living With Social Anxiety Disorder – Why Suffer Alone?
So, why is it that so many can seek help but choose not to? There are probably 5 main reasons:
- Stigma: Dispite all the ongoing campaigns around mental health there’s still a fear in many people of the consequences of having a mental illness diagnosis.
- Denial: Simply not realising or accepting that there’s a problem.
- Lack Of Information: There are so many forms of SAD and we only seem to hear about the most common ones or those affecting high profile individuals.
- Trust: By this we really mean difficulty in opening up to family or friends and closely related to stigma.
- Hopelessness: What’s the point, there’s nothing that can be done!
Another question for you … being honest can you relate to any of the above?
Shy Bladder Syndrome As A Social Anxiety Disorder
We know that social anxiety disorder is common amongst adults. Also, we know that shy bladder syndrome is officially classified as a specific form of this disorder and is equally as common. So just why do people not seek help and simply live with this disorder? Let’s examine the similarities and put it in context.
We stated above that Social Anxiety Disorder develops from a complex set of risk factors, including genetics, brain chemistry, personality, and life events and starts in early teen years. Specifically in the case of Paruresis the trigger is some form of life event at around that age. This could be as simple as some form of embarrassing restroom related event, restoorm teasing, bullying or harassment, undue pressure to perform or, occasionally and in extreme cases, sexual abuse (in which case you should seek profesional support). We’ve written a page explaining this in more detail: Understanding The Triggers Of Shy Bladder Syndrome.
We also stated that around 63% of SAD sufferers don’t get treatment and 36% struggle with a disorder for more that 10 years before seeking help … sound familiar to you? In our experience this is very true in respect of shy bladder syndrome. Not just because paruretics find it difficult to ask for help but also because the condition and the severity of the symptoms builds uup gradually, like a snowball, over time.
