Social Anxiety Disorder

Social Anxiety Disorder is a condition whereby a person experiences an intense fear and apprenhension as regards social situations. It physical symptoms can include stuttering as well as others such as blushing, sweating, trembling, etc., many of which are also further symptoms of stuttering itself. It is generally classified as a psychiatric disorder.

Social Anxiety Disorder is commonly linked to self perception, an area often considered relevant in the treatment of stuttering. Sufferers are asked to analyse and re-evaluate perceptions they have of specific situations: what they fear as humiliating or embarrassing may not be so at all when looked at in a clear light. Anticipatory thoughts and post mortem analysis are also somewhat comparable to a scenario of specific disfluency.

The causative factors seem to be self perpetuating which is similar to the fear cycle often mentioned in the context of stuttering. It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that the symptoms of stuttering may bring about fertile ground for a social anxiety disorder, especially when the stutterer tends to use avoidance a lot. Their interconnections may even have a synergistic effect which could make the symptoms of both harder to treat or correct.