Hidden signs of social anxiety

From circling back to past interactions to making assumptions of not being liked, here are a few hidden signs of social anxiety.

The persistent fear of being judged by others and being constantly watched is often referred to as social anxiety. This can stem from a variety of reasons and experiences. Social interactions can feel dreadful, and people may shy away from taking part in activities, work and other things – social anxiety is, however, treatable. One of the most prominent symptoms of social anxiety is the worry of embarrassment and the fear of getting humiliated. "Social anxiety is an extremely common struggle - with about 12% of people having social anxiety at a level that interferes with their life and functioning. Social anxiety leads you to engage in underdoing behaviors - like avoiding socialising, not sharing about yourself, staying quiet. As well as overdoing behaviors - things like over giving, trying to say/do the perfect thing, scripting or censoring yourself," wrote Therapist Katie Fracalanza as she explained the behaviors in social anxiety.

Katie further noted down a few signs of social anxiety that we should watch out for:

Preparing in advance: in case of a future social interaction, we start to get stressed and start preparing for the interaction. This can cause excessive stress and make us feel overburdened.

Assumptions: We often make assumptions that people do not like us, hence we start to try to please them and over give to ensure that we give them a few reasons to like us.

Spotlight: We always feel that the spotlight is on us when we are around people. This is not felt in a good way – in fact, we feel that we are watched and judged for who we are.

Offending: We like to circle back to conversations and past interactions to understand if we had said something that may have offended the other person.