The connection between PTSD and social anxiety is well understood. Anxiety is a common reaction and continuing problem for many people who have experienced trauma. If you’re dealing with anxiety borne from trauma, understanding the link between the two will help you get your life back on track. Negative emotions aren’t useless. Did you know that negative emotions serve as guidance to help us process and overcome our traumas? Our emotions serve to steer us in our daily lives and shouldn’t go ignored.
If you’re curious to learn more about the connection between PTSD and social anxiety, you’ve come to the right place! Read on to find out more.
How Common Are PTSD and Social Anxiety?
Both PTSD and signs of anxiety are far more common than you might expect and often go undiagnosed. The number of people who exist in a state of general unease and depression have a form of one or both of these common ailments. Unfortunately, for the most part, it’s seen as par for the course regarding the general human experience.
The truth is that the importance of mental health has fallen so far to the wayside that people who seem well-adjusted and happy are something of an oddity. People who generally seem content and secure in their positive outlook are considered dumb or inexperienced. Many types of anxiety and forms of myriad trauma have become the norm.
This is often best seen in the forms of humour people exhibit daily. Jokes about suicide, stress, and the melancholic experience of life, in general, are commonplace. As with all humour, there’s a grain of truth behind every joke.
How Are PTSD and Social Anxiety Related?
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and social anxiety are deeply connected. Anxiety is a common reaction to any kind of recurring stress, it’s similar to the feedback often heard at concerts.
When a microphone picks up the output from a speaker, the sound sometimes gets picked up by the microphone again. This creates a loop that plays until the mic or the speaker gets turned off. Anxiety is like this feedback loop, where our stresses play in a loop in our minds without end.
This feedback loop creates a juddering feeling of inescapable negative emotion that’s very difficult to get a handle on. It’s also hard to be mindful during an anxiety attack and diagnose what’s happening in the middle of the tumult. Trauma is often the source of this anxious loop, causing the familiar agony of uncontrollable anxiety and confusion.
General Anxiety Disorder
A feeling of constant worry and an inability to set your mind at ease is the standard symptoms of GAD. While you might assume this is a normal state of being, living with GAD is far from normal.
If you’re always feeling stressed and find it incredibly difficult to find peace, even while alone or without a clear cause, you may have GAD. Some people incorrectly believe themselves to be natural worriers and for a state of constant anxiety to be normal. It’s not, and living with GAD is seriously debilitating.
If you’re wondering, ‘How long does anxiety last?’ With a little professional guidance, it needn’t last long! Help is available, and a much more enjoyable outlook is possible with the assistance of professionals.
Panic Disorder
Panic is a natural response to an unforeseen negative situation. This comes down to a ‘fight or flight’ response we’ve evolved to deal with danger quickly.
People suffering from panic disorders get flooded with negative survival emotions at the drop of a hat. Experiencing panic easily or disproportionately is not normal. We should have proportionate reactions during our daily dealings with everyday stimuli.
These reactions often make life unlivable, turning even the most basic tasks into a herculean effort.
Agoraphobia
Agoraphobia, commonly considered a fear of open spaces or being outside, is a fear of the unknown. People who have agoraphobia feel helpless in situations where they feel as if they can’t escape to a safe space easily. They also fear that if something goes wrong, help won’t arrive.
Trips to crowded spaces are particularly triggering for an agoraphobic person. Even the thought of travelling on public transport is often enough to bring a sufferer to their knees.
Sufferers require help for seemingly basic tasks that require venturing into places such as the supermarket or bank. The idea of dealing with crowds is overwhelming, and they’ll go to great lengths to avoid areas where people gather.
Phobias
Phobias are anxious responses that are blown out of all proportion. Extreme stress and anxiety can arise from all kinds of things that normally elicit no response. For example, some people have extreme phobias of buttons, zips, and polystyrene.
None of these things are particularly threatening to someone without a phobia, and are completely irrational to the non-sufferer. Phobias such as the fear of spiders or snakes make a certain logical sense, as they can present a real danger.
A phobia is debilitating due to the extreme reaction felt by the sufferer. Imagine being terrified of something extremely common, and knowing it could be just around the corner at any moment. Daily life is sure to become a chore.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
After a particularly horrific experience, it makes perfect sense to need time to process things. PTSD is simply the name given to people who are still struggling to cope with a traumatic experience. It’s completely normal to suffer from such an experience for a while afterward.
PTSD is diagnosed when the normal period of healing is taking longer than expected and has become debilitating. Flashbacks, nightmares, and fear of the situation recurring all serve to strengthen the memory of the original stressful experience.
Instead of gradually coming to terms with the pain and forming defences against it, emotions begin to spiral instead. This negative descent requires help to escape and can trigger feelings of social anxiety in its midst, compounding the problem further.
Social Anxiety
Social anxiety is often the worry about how others perceive you, or of not being perceived as you view yourself. At its root, the problem is borne from a strong and insistent ego. Worries over how you’re being perceived, if you’re going to be liked, and how people might judge you are all part and parcel of social anxiety.
Not wanting to interact with others or be in a social situation are both symptoms of a runaway ego. Social anxiety can also be caused by feelings of superiority which your ego knows to be in danger from direct interactions with reality.
Social anxiety is a particularly complex issue to deal with and can have many causes, often intertwined with each other. Introspection and a desire to overcome self-delusion are both fantastic as anxiety treatment but may require some coaching to learn how to wield them to the best effect.
Is Anxiety a Weakness?
Anxiety is only a weakness when left unchecked. At its core, anxiety is just another message to take heed of and discard. The problem arises while trying to hold onto all these negative emotions and the inability to drop them as their use expires.
Anxiety is useful, but only up to a certain point. Constant and incessant worrying is a useless waste of energy. A certain amount of worrying can help in the decision-making process but ultimately should be avoided at all costs.
Anxiety becomes a weakness when you let it get its hooks into you to the point where a decision is impossible. It’s worth remembering that any attempt to predict the future is a fool’s errand, in which case worrying about future outcomes is equally fruitless. Constantly bending the knee to anxiety is no way to live a life, but it’s a common stage many people have to overcome to become well-rounded individuals.
Is Anxiety a Mood Disorder?
Mood regulation is a personal thing and depends much on the personality and experience of the individual. Constant anxiety is an unnatural and unproductive state to be in, so it can be thought of as a disorder.
Fortunately, anxiety can be overcome without medication. The most efficacious route to abolishing anxiety is to face the dragon. Imagined perils are often built up within our minds to the point of seeming impossible to deal with. Remember, there’s no shame whatsoever in seeking a helping hand along the way!
Our imagination plays tricks on us though and likes to mould our reality from baseless assumptions. The best way to destroy these anxiety-inducing fabrications is to meet them head-on in reality, with our feet firmly planted. Things are seldom as bad as we imagine them to be.
PTSD Treatment Options
As with many malaises of the mind, a deconstructive human approach is incredibly potent. Finding people who understand the inner workings of our minds and common patterns will help a great deal. PTSD and social anxiety are human conditions and should be dealt with as such.
A listening ear goes a long way. Talking openly without fear of judgment is a panacea for many mental health issues, PTSD help and assistance with anxiety are no exception. Rehabilitation centers are available and provide the assistance and guidance necessary to overcome them.
Once you set out to understand your problems, they’ll diminish rapidly. Finding people who have experience helping others will speed the healing process considerably. If you’re feeling mired in the bog of anxiety due to your PTSD, rest assured that help and recovery are possible!
Tips to Manage Social Anxiety
The anxiety feedback loop must be broken to begin feeling relief. It’s all too easy to feel trapped or frozen in its clutches, but a change must be made to escape the situation. It might seem a trifling thing in the face of such powerful negative emotion, but simply walking outside can do wonders.
Fresh air and putting one foot in front of the other are as miraculous as they are simple. Going for a walk helps for a few reasons, especially during a particularly grim episode. Deciding to put your shoes on can sometimes be enough distraction to end an anxious feedback loop.
Stepping outside into the wider world is a reminder that reality is bigger than the four walls of the room you were trapped in and diminishes your anxiety. The act of walking gives you light exercise and helps stimulate positive hormone production. It’s also a nice feeling to go forward rather than curl up under the covers.
Going outside is a reminder that other people exist and are every bit as complicated as you are. They live lives often just as fraught with confusion and pain as yours, and every bit as capable of joy and contentment. The simple reminder that you’re not alone in this world and are a part of something greater serves as a firm foundation for positive change.
Allowing Yourself Control
Take a look at your hands and remember that you’re in control of your life, and its aim. We all want the best for ourselves, but sometimes it’s easy to get stuck in a rut. The first step in a new direction is usually the hardest, but once it’s made, the rest are easier.
If this article has helped you understand more about PTSD and social anxiety, and you’d like to learn more, feel free to contact us! We’d love to hear from you.