People who suffer with social anxiety, sometimes known as social phobia, can find situations that most of us consider everyday to be overwhelming. Different people will have different levels of anxiety in similar situations.

All anxiety disorders are not equal, different people find different things cause them to have anxiety attacks. Men will find different situations cause their anxiety disorder to come to the fore than women do.

Imagine spending your work day terrified that you will make a mistake. We all make mistakes, it is natural and no one can be 100% perfect all the time. When most of us make a mistake we just deal with it and move on. If you suffer with social anxiety the fear of making a mistake could well overwhelm your mind and drive you into a situation of total panic.

If you are in a situation that could possibly cause minor worry in most of us, such as a crowd of people suddenly appearing and people coming in a bit close. Someone with social anxiety could well go into a full on anxiety attack, couple that with the fear that someone will notice their anxiety and it all compounds into a very frightening anxiety attack.

These symptoms of anxiety can often lead to embarrassment for the person that has social anxiety. Some people that have social anxiety disorder are comfortable being only with close family and friends. Others people with social anxiety only fear certain social situations. Some people become anxious when they are dealing with people in higher positions such as their boss.

Speaking in public is a common fear of people with social anxiety disorder. Other fears can be eating in restaurants, using public restrooms, and using telephones. People that have social anxiety disorder worry for days and sometimes weeks before going to a social situation that they are fearing.

Many more women than men suffer with social anxiety disorder, possibly because they feel extra pressure to be perfect in social situations, but no one seems to really know. It is not uncommon for people to have social anxieties, there are certainly hundreds of thousands if not millions of people who suffer with it to various degrees in America alone.

Just because a child is shy it does not mean that they will suffer from anxiety latter in life. Social anxiety usually starts at a early age and there unless it is treated it will make the teenage years and beyond be even more difficult than they usually are.