system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: The normalisation of social anxiety is breeding social anxiety

*EDIT: I must clarify that I do not believe this is the ONLY cause of the rise in anxiety. Obviously, as with almost every issue faced by the world, there are MANY factors that affect global mental health*

To start, I have OCD and panic disorder. I do not suffer from anxiety, however, I’d say I understand feeling anxious, and suffering from a mental illness more than the average neurotypical person. I’m not trying to ridicule anyone with social anxiety or any forms of anxiety disorder. I am NOT saying that normalisation is inherently bad.

Social anxiety is a very real very valid mental illness. People would most certainly still suffer from social anxiety regardless of if we had a label for it/ if people were vocal about their experiences. 

However, I believe there is a reason social anxiety seems to be the most common form of anxiety, particularly in the current rising generations. We talk about it non-stop. Social anxiety has been normalised to the point where it’s considered ‘not relatable’ if you don’t have it.  

Check out any form of social media and you will find comments making jokes about how they’re ‘too scared to order food’ or ‘too scared to answer calls’.  YouTube skits, Instagram memes, tweets and such are centred around this, it has become embedded into the culture. I would like to state social media at this point, for this rising generation (16-25) is clearly a given for each individual person to have and use to communicate effectively. Therefor it is not a sampling of only introverted/anxious people, but the general population. 

I believe the constant rehashing of social anxiety and the issues associated with it are bringing unfounded fears to the forefront of people’s minds. They hear flocks of people say things such as “I’m too scared to order my food, what if the waiter judges me.” &amp; They in turn think “Oh, I’ve never thought of that. Will the waiter judge me? Should I be thinking about that?” And rinse &amp; repeat with several social anxiety issues, until these fears are imbedded in the whole populous.

There has to be a reason that social anxiety seems to be growing so rapidly when other forms of anxiety are not. To me it seems clear that is due to the normalisation of it.

I suffer from panic attacks over a fear of being killed (among many other things). The fear of terrorism (planes) and general apocalypse level things is a common trigger for me. I logically understand these are unfounded fears. When I hear a particularly loud plane overhead and start freaking out, I remind myself of this (that it is my mental illness causing this fear, that I am not in danger it’s just an imbalance of chemicals in my brain bla bla bla), and instruct others to do so as well if they wish to help me. It doesn’t always stop a panic attack, but it certainly seems to shorten them or give me a sense of hope that they will be over soon, it’s just my brain messing up.

When someone is socially anxious, there’s seems to be a culture of ‘understanding’ their anxiety. Like it is integral to make them feel supported and understood. One must say “I understand why you might feel this way, it is very scary to talk to the person at the cash register. I’m here for you.” Or alternatively, “I’ll do it for you.” This seems like it almost takes their fears and in some way makes them reality for everyone around them. Like instead of blaming social anxiety on an illness, it’s an accepted response to the world we live in. It seems like this normalisation of the response to anxiety could be making these fears seem logical in the minds of people who otherwise wouldn’t of thought to fear some forms of socialisation.

I want to make it clear. I am NOT saying we shouldn’t comfort people with social anxiety or do any of the above. I am NOT saying we should treat people with social anxiety that way that helps me. I suffer with a different illness, I am a different person. Things are different. 

I am simply saying the reason the way we handle social anxiety right now is making it more likely for other people to develop the illness, because it’s embedding it into our culture as a norm, instead of as a serious illness that needs assistance. I think this could cause a lot of troubles in even neurotypical people, and could be changing the scape of what is a ‘normal’ fear. 

Maybe there is no other way to handle social anxiety; maybe there is. I’m no expert. 

I just think neurotypical people should be on the look out to remember social anxiety is an illness, and the worries of the mentally ill don’t have to be adopted by you, work hard to resist the temptation that fear has on all of us; I suppose. 

Idk, do you think social anxiety rates are stagnant, maybe this is all anecdotal evidence? Change my view.

*Edit: wording ‘growing’ ‘stagnant’*

*Edit: OCD is not a form of anxiety as of 2014 as per the DSM. Please stop telling me it is in the comments. Regardless, I was referring to GAD (Generalised Anxiety Disorder) which is widely recognised as manifesting completely differently to OCD, even before they separated OCD and Anxiety officially.*

**Edit: I think I’ve slight changed my view? I don’t believe it’s the normalisation of the ILLNESS that cause it’s growth, more likely the normalisation of unhealthy coping mechanisms (avoiding socialisation etc) that has spread to people who otherwise wouldn’t of found it socially acceptable to indulge in those behaviours. I don’t think social anxiety is treated enough as a serious debilitating illness (like depression and OCD are) so people refrain from highlighting how absolutely dangerous it is to use those unhealthy coping mechanisms. Instead we just get memes about being to scared to answer the phone. Imagine if we were to get similar memes about cutting? It would be a stark difference.**

**And that’s not to say there’s anything WRONG with joking about mental illness, I think it’s important. But it’s only a viable option if it is first taken seriously, which social anxiety is not. I’d like social anxiety similar to agoraphobia which is taken MUCH more seriously, but no one sees the avoidance of ever leaving the house as something to joke about instead of help someone get over.**
gpt
>There has to be a reason that social anxiety seems to be spreading so rapidly when other forms of anxiety are not.

It is very common for the reported prevalence of a given mental disorder to increase as the disorder becomes 'normalized.' One of the major reasons for this is that destigmatation of a disorder results in people feeling more comfortable talking about it. People feel less embarrassed about it, and reported diagnoses likewise increases. So, it's not that the disorder is actually increasing in prevalence, but rather the measured prevalence is increasing due to destigmatization. 

I suspect this is responsible for the apparent increase in social anxiety. Now, it is also true that mental disorders can 'spread.' For example, suicide rates tend to go up after highly publicized celebrity suicides. However, these are usually treated as precipitating causes rather than underlying causes. The highly publicized suicide didn't suddenly make people depressed, but it acted as a catalyst for people who were already suicidal. If this is the case for social anxiety, then the normalization isnt prodicing social anxiety in people- it's just making people who are predisposed for social anxiety more likely to act on it. This is kind of similar to what you're proposing, but the key difference is that it shouldn't be producing social anxiety in otherwise 'normal' people.