Social anxiety variations

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Is anybody here also diagnosed or only diagnosed with social anxiety disorder?

I wonder whether there exist differences between social anxiety as it manifests in NTs and in people with HFA or Aspergers (when it is diagnosed).

Because what I find is that my concerns regarding social interactions are not always unfounded but SA is characterized by unfounded or irrational fears. When I am telling someone that I have problems with understanding the nuances of social interactions, pragmatics and language and have experienced reactions to my social skills time and time again, that is something different than someone who does know and understand social interactions but chooses not to engage, is it not?

SA is also markedly characterized by physical symptoms. While I might not be talkative when it comes to small talk (but talkative when it comes to things that interest me and I'm knowledgeable about), I don't get any physical symptoms by avoiding it or engaging in an attempt at conversation.
Sometimes I get very mild symptoms like feeling dizzy but I feel like this is because social interactions take a lot of energy off me.

I might not ask someone I'm interacting with how they feel or talk about myself or ask them about their day but not because I'm avoiding it, rather I just forget that this is what you are supposed to do to initiate or keep a conversation going.

I might not make eye contact but I don't because I'm concentrating on their words. In SA you are avoiding someone's judgement.

Social anxiety mostly starts in the early teens, whereas autism, you're born with that type of social skills and behaviour.
It's also said that social anxiety might be present in little children, too but manifests as anxiety, e.g. fearing separation from parents, phobias. I haven't found much literature on children or toddlers with social anxiety (if at all).

Selective mutism as an aspect of anxiety subsides with the right persons. While the social behaviour of those with autism doesn't change all that much with their interaction partners.

Etc.
Do you have any examples like this?

I think I don't have a doc's stamp over my social anxiety (I'm not sure, I haven't seen the details of my documentation). I definitely get fight-or-flight response to social interactions, esp. when tired.
My anxiety is not unfounded. I know perfectly well what I fear and it does happen when I don't control myself well enough. I fear sensory overload and people freaking out and making fuss about my reaction to it, making it worse and worse.

After prolonged social interaction I get quite a strong muscle pain.

I can tell my social difficulties aren't able to be completely explained by social anxiety.

When I was a teenager I could boisterously walk into a group without any fear of judgment. The problem is that I would vegetate despite that. The anxiety hits after I start vegetating and feeling bad about it. Overall I was unconcerned with the opinions others had of me, although total rejection does hurt. I've also always been better than the average person at giving speeches and presentations in front of large groups, probably because I don't really have anxiety about it at all.

Nope...it's just the improvisational group dynamics that confuses me and makes me retreat. I will say that over time, as I've become more self-aware, I have become more socially anxious and it is more difficult to boisterously walk into that group. I'm much more likely to be quiet and distant to begin with.

I start feeling really stiff when I start retreating and feeling uncomfortable. My back and shoulders will start to hurt too. I might even get a headache. It's the worst at large, loud, brightly lit gatherings of people.

Mayel, I have had serious problems hearing what others are saying my whole life. I have to ask people to repeat things too often. They also sometimes have to ask me to repeat because I can be "too quiet and mumbling" according to them. Either that or it's "slow down."

Right. I get that, too. That I'm too quiet or mumbling. But I also get that I'm talking too loudly, as well.

Diagnosed with SA even earlier than AS. Sometimes I wonder if I actually only have SA, just some very unusual variant of it. I occasionally have more in common with a socially anxious NT than I do with low functioning AS, but at some point they all merge anyway.

Not diagnosed with social anxiety, or any form of anxiety at all. But I'm autistic.


Social anxiety is how it is; social situations as a trigger for anxiety -- be it NT or ND. It's just common with NDs, it is just common with autistics.
Anxiety isn't the same as overwhelm and uncertainty, it's just uncertainty and overwhelm is an easy cause of stress and anxiety for most people. In some ways, anxiety affects executive function yet executive function is more or less an anxiety lessen/management thing and doesn't guarantee immunity.
It just occurs more often to autistics, added with executive dysfunction and dysregulations that makes stress management harder.



From what I've observed, I can only go as far as overwhelmed and uncertain -- and be stressed out after prolonged exposure. How long before it is tense enough entirely depends on my current executive function levels.

I can feel pain, get sick and this raw feeling of exhaustion when at my limit. Yet there's no fight-or-flight/freeze there, there's no urge to pull out or push back or stop, only pain and exhaustion out of overwhelm and overwork.
My internal systems are so overworked, parts of it no longer able to aid me -- this would also mean I'd be very vulnerable especially to anxiety and meltdowns/shutdowns -- anyone with the same feeling would likely have. Yet so far, it hadn't gone to that point for me.
Along with the awareness that I'm not working right -- yet with this awareness, again, there's no fight or flight, not even shutdowns or meltdowns. I don't end up being mute, I don't end up with fleeing expressions... Only vulnerability, along with physical warnings that I had enough.
And choices like, say, the choice of recklessness against my own well being because I was enjoying this so go-go-go there cause I like it or caution if I'm not enjoying this and it's not worth it of course I'd back down -- there are no 'defences' flaring here, only tomorrow's stimuli hangover and I fully know it. I'll just recover and do fine as usual.

It's just that I have a screwed sense of fear to begin with. Sometimes I question myself if I only have this trait of overcoming -- as opposed to managing anxieties when it does happen. If I didn't had this trait, whatever it was makes sense of fear screwed, I would've have more issues and more similar experiences.
Any instinctive pull disappears right after any incidences (even something truly painful like electric shocks won't lasts let alone social-emotional blunders), and I don't have to forget or ignore to cope -- because there's nothing for me to cope to begin with.

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My psychologist said I don't have a diagnosable anxiety disorder because what I experience is completely understandable given my neurological processing challenges thanks to autism. She said an anxiety disorder is when the anxiety is disproportionate to the experience.

I tend to use "my anxiety" as shorthand to explain to people what I'm experiencing though if disclosing my diagnosis isn't helpful in a situation, as most people have at least some understanding of anxiety and what that means. I usually end up blurting something about autism anyway, because I usually say what I'm thinking if I'm stressed. Most people don't understand autism or asperger's very well, and I think my presentation of autism is challenging to people because I mask well but also have significant difficulty and spend very extended periods of time in complete hibernation.

They've just changed my diagnosis from level 1 to level 2. I wonder whether level 1 with additional anxiety might be more accurate? I'm clearly not a psychologist though, and there was significant consultation between my psychologist and other professionals to make that change, so I should just trust them I guess.

So there is Social Anxiety, a disorder, and social anxiety, a symptom. Probably most autistic people have experienced social anxiety of some level, even if it hasn’t gotten to the point of the disorder. I do not think social anxiety as a symptom is as prevalent in neurotypicals.

I would say we experience regular “social stress”, which we use as a normal part of our social system to steer ourselves and each other toward desired or at least acceptable behavior. You could compare this to feeling hungry to remind you to eat. You might feel stress to remind you to shut up and let the other person talk, or stress to raise or lower your voice to accommodate for your listeners.

Whether the symptom or the full disorder, it’s obviously hard for people who are different to get along with a bunch of people who are the same. Quite anxiety inducing. I feel like it’s never taken seriously enough.

I can walk up to people when I want to, but I don't like them walking up to me. That doesn't work out too well in the 'give and take' world. I'm working on it.