Social Anxiety Disorder

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Do you have Social Anxiety Disorder?

Does it make it impossible to meet people?

Yep. Diagnosed way before I ever head of Asperger's.

Mine isn't as bad as it used to be. I put it down to developing a bit more self-confidence, general social skills, coping methods and the right meds. Though combined with my AS it makes talking to new people very difficult.

I do, stemming from the aspergers. It doesn't hurt me too bad socially, but that could be a mix of having a milder form and of keeping it under control through being aware of, and getting used to it.

Yeah, I was diagnosed with it before AS. It makes for a brutal combination, that's for sure.

That sounds pretty S.A.D.

but, social anxiety is apart of aspergers, it is a symptom, not a disorder by its self if you already are on the spectrum.
Alot of cross Dxs I think could be consolidated a little better.

Aspergers anxiety happens from different reasons than Social Anxiety Disorder.

Last edited by unreal3x on 31 Jan 2009, 4:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I have it too! And mixed with AS it destroys any chance of having a girlfriend or friends.
By being forced to speak in front of college speech classes (for grades), I can speak in front of people because I had no choice. However, it did not give me in courage to speak to a young woman who I wanted to meet.

Wow thanks! I did not know this.

I have General Anxiety and SAD. Currently undergoing treatment for it.

You're one up on me in the speech department, it got so bad for me that I just skipped them altogether and lost the 10 or 15%.

That's wrong, actually. Having problems with social things is a part of Asperger's, but the SA isn't. Most individuals with AS aren't socially conscious at all, they just have problems interacting.

Bandying about the term S.A.D. for social anxiety is somewhat confusing as well as it is used more often to refer to seasonal affective disorder.

An NT that is SAD will feel much different and have different experiences with their anxiety as opposed to one with Aspergers.

People with Aspergers nerves work differently, certain parts of the brain don't fire when performing social tasks, we process language differently, eye contact, seeing faces differently, etc. Those are just a couple of things that will contribute to our anxiety. An NT does not go through all of those things, but still can have their own SAD, theirs is not the same as ours.


A person with Aspergers does not also have 'SAD' or atleast its not the same social anxiety disorder, we just have AS and some of us have more anxiety than others.

Yes, social phobia and generalized anxiety along with selective mutism.

I do not have social anxiety disorder or any anxiety for that matter.

Sensory overload is apart of aspergers and sensory overload can occur in social situations, isn't anxiety apart of, product of, or based on sensory overload?

True, it can be a result of or a factor contributing to the overload.

Basically, a sensory overload is caused by too many stimuli. Anxiety doesn't need to be a part of it.

But stress such as anxiety can lower the tolerance for sensory stimuli drastically and also enforce the intensity with which stimuli are experienced which both would add to an approaching state of overload.

Edit: And the experience of having an overload can then again cause anxiety too.

I think social anxiety actually is quite common in Aspergers. After reading the wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_anxiety_disorder, there are a lot of behavioral characteristics that are also being described by people all over WP. e.g. "The groundless fear of making telephone calls is typical". This must have been mentioned hundreds of times on various posts. There are a list of physical symptoms, blushing, nausea, sweating etc that again are often discussed here by AS sufferers. I've suffered all of these too, still do occasionially.

Totally speculating, but to me it looks possible that AS and SAD are linked in some way for some people. AS seems to contain all of SAD, but with symptoms such as lack of empathy, sensory issues, body language problems etc etc that can all lead to the fear of social contact hence producing the anxiety of SAD.

Maybe I'm just one of the odd ones who has both. I don't really feel that I have ever suffered from AS, but I have suffered a huge amount from social anxiety.

<EDIT> A couple of other quotes from the wikipedia article that link to AS:
"Social anxiety disorder may be caused by the longer-term effects of not fitting in, or being bullied, rejected or ignored".

"A 2006 study found that the area of the brain called the amygdala, part of the limbic system, is hyperactive when patients are shown threatening faces or confronted with frightening situations. " The amygdala has also been implicated in autistic brain functioning.

Last edited by ManErg on 31 Jan 2009, 7:44 pm, edited 3 times in total.

I suppose anxiety does not have to be apart of Aspergers, I mean the person can feel fine, be calm, and still have problems with taking things literally, not knowing when to join a certain part of a conversation, sort of speaking a different language, etc.