social-anxiety.net

First, for the purposes of this article and all future articles the term social anxiety will refer to the illness listed as 300.23 in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV.

Second, if there is one fact that I've learned about social anxiety it is that there are almost no actual facts about this disorder. There are a lot of theories from a lot of sources; doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, professors, etc but those are just theories and from people who don't have social anxiety at that. Very little in the way of fact however.

Third, I'm no expert on social anxiety, I'm not a doctor. I'm not even a high school graduate. However I have had social anxiety my entire life and I did run the largest social anxiety website on the internet for most of the past decade. I read literally thousands of stories from thousands of people over the years with all different levels of anxiety from mild to severe and I think it has given me a unique perspective on the subject. This will be the first in a series of articles of some of the things I've learned.

Fourth, I won't be citing any sources unless it's to give credit where credit is due. It would be rather pointless because for every source cited I could find another that says the exact opposite....(More)