People with social anxiety may get a lump in their throat and their facial muscles may freeze up when they meet this person. You'll look funny, you'll be hesitant, maybe you'll even blush, and you won't be able to find the right words to answer the questions coherently. You just know it. It is especially frustrating because you know you could do the job well if you could just get pa st this terrifying and intimidating interview. Welcome to the world of the socially anxious.
Social anxiety is the third largest psychological problem in the United States today.
This type of anxiety affects 15 million Americans in any given year. Unlike some other psychological problems, social anxiety is not well understood by the general public or by medical and mental health care professionals, such as doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, social workers, and counselors. Because few socially-anxious people have heard of their own problem, and have never seen it discussed on any media, such as the television talk shows, they think they are the only ones in the whole world who have these terrible symptoms. Therefore, they must keep quiet about them. It would be awful if everyone realized how much anxiety they experienced in daily life.