Person s with social phobia often find it difficult to maintain employment, and participate in leisure activities. They may also have problems completing some important activities such as shopping. Is a disorder in which the person experiences excessive worry and anxiety about most events and situations which they partake in. The excessive worry leads to the person often having difficulty concentrating, feeling tense and on edge, and becomes irritable. Because the person worries about most events the impact upon their everyday lives is often great.
Obsessions are persistent ideas, thoughts and images which cause the individual distress.
The individual responds to this distress by engaging in repetitive activities in an attempt to combat their obsessive thoughts and the accompanying feelings of anxiety. These repetitive behaviours are termed compulsions. If an individual suffers from only a mild form of this disorder their everyday functioning may not be affected. However, it can be disabling if people have to engage in time consuming rituals while performing activities. For example, if a person has to wash their hands in between each step of making a sandwich the process could possibly take hours.