Posted by SLS on August 7, 2009, at 12:33:45
In reply to Re: Am I on the right track at least?, posted by Dima on August 7, 2009, at 10:13:33
> The social anxiety is just a fear of going into most social situations because I have nothing to say and it's hard for me to think of conversation. In one on one conversation, I'm almost never enjoying it, but rather just consider it work trying to think of what to say.
That's an excellent description. In my opinion, that's depression rather than an anxiety disorder. You probably have a relatively inactive mind and would rather just be alone in a safe place where you can just sit and vegetate. If you were not depressed and your mind were more active, you would have more things to say and more likely to interact with people. I will say, however, that there is now a psychological component to the fears you have developed. Even if you were to respond to a biological treatment, you will still have a mess to clean up. It is difficult to know, but you might have had psychological issues earlier in life that produced the content of your fears. Not only that, this content may have produced enough stress to trigger the depressive disorder. Whatever is the explanation, you will now have some work to do to help work past the depressive thoughts and social awkwardness.
This is, of course, all guesswork on my part. The bottom line is that I don't think you need to treat your social discomfort as if it were a separate comorbid disorder. I believe things will improve once the depression remits.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:910728
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090801/msgs/910778.html