How Social Anxiety Relates to Other Mental Illnesses

How Social Anxiety Relates to Other Mental Illnesses

Social anxiety is just one form of anxiety, and not only can it relate to other forms of anxiety, but other mental illnesses as well.

Having a mental illness does not make you weak, but it does make you more vulnerable to many in your life.

Take a look at how your social anxiety might be related to other mental illnesses, and what you can do about it.

Social Anxiety Often Accompanies Other Anxiety Disorders

One of the ways social anxiety related to other mental illnesses is the fact that it is often not the only type of anxiety disorder you can have. You might have social phobias in addition to generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), or possibly have panic attack disorder heightened by your social anxiety. This is why it is good to get professional help for treatment, at least in the beginning, so you can narrow down what forms of anxiety you have and treat each of them properly.

This inspiring book THE GIFTS OF IMPERFECTION:LET GO OF WHO YOU THINK YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE AND EMBRACE WHO YOU ARE by New York Times best-selling author and professor Brené Brown offers a powerful and inspiring book that explores how to cultivate the courage, compassion, and connection to embrace your imperfections and to recognize that you are enough.

You Start a Habit of Avoidance

Avoidance is something that accompanies many different types of mental health disorders.

How?

When you have mental illness, you start to avoid people or situations in your life.

You might skip important work meetings or job interviews.

You might avoid groups of people.

You might stop hanging out with friends or family.

This avoidance unfortunately provides a link between anxiety, depression, and other mental illness you might be experiencing.

It Affects Your Personal and Professional Life

Social anxiety and mental illness can greatly affect your personal and professional life.

You may not make or keep your friends, have difficulty with new relationships, or not being able to advance at your current job because you are too afraid to step it up and talk about a possible promotion.

There Are Similar Treatment Options

Social anxiety disorder, like other mental illnesses will have similar treatment options.

The treatments are not identical. but many treatments help not just your depression, but your stress and social anxiety as well.

These treatments include:

• medications
• changing your diet
• exercising
• getting better sleep
• journaling, and
• seeing a therapist.

Finding a treatment that works for multiple mental health issues will help you on the road to improving your life.