Social Anxiety and Depression. Are They Different?

Nowadays, social anxiety and depression are real and common mental disorders. Based on WHO data in 2017, there are more than 260 million people experience social anxieties, and more than 300 million people who experience depression. The terrible fact is, someone with social anxiety can experience depression, or conversely, those who experience depression can experience anxiety.

Social Anxiety and Depression
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What is the difference between social anxiety and depression?Depression

Depression is a mental state characterized by deep feelings of sadness and despair. A depressive disorder is a serious mental disorder that negatively affects a person's feelings, and influences how he/she will think and act. Depression causes feelings of sadness and loss of enthusiasm in undergoing activities. This can cause a variety of emotional and physical problems and reduce a person's ability to function at work and at home. The most common characteristics of depression are feelings of emptiness and despair about the future.

Depression may be a psychological state characterized by deep feelings of sadness and despair. depressive disorder may be a serious mental disturbance that negatively affects an individual's feelings, and influences how he/she will think and act. It causes feelings of sadness and loss of enthusiasm in living life activities. this will cause a spread of emotional and physical problems and reduce an individual's ability to function at work and reception. the foremost common characteristics of depression are feelings of emptiness and despair about the longer term.

Not all teenagers succeed through the changes that occur during the transition well, even between them begin to experience various inconvenient events. the unpreparedness of adolescents in dealing with various life problems can be one of the factors that cause the potential risk of adolescents to experience depression even higher.

Depression is caused by several factors such as genetic, biological, environmental, and psychological factors. Previous researchers found that melancholic depression, bipolar disorder, and postpartum depression were associated with increased levels of cytosine combined with decreased cortisol sensitivity.

Depression is usually undiagnosed from the beginning and is only diagnosed after they experience serious difficulties at school and when adjusting to peers. This is thought to be caused by some depression disorder responses not too different.

Social Anxiety

Social anxiety refers to communicative anxiety. This is described as feeling afraid or worried when an individual is in a social situation. Individuals who experience social anxiety will develop negative feelings and predict negative things when interacting and communicating with others. The individual has a personality with characteristics such as being nervous, shy, quiet, and anticipating not to interact with others in order to avoid negative views of others towards him

Those who experience verbal anxiety verbally feel very anxious when communicating and face to face, the result is they depend on communication media that can be done in writing in social media or instead they prefer to be silent.

People with social anxiety tend to communicate online by presenting and imaging themselves as best they can in order to get a positive impression and image from other parties.

The behaviors seen in people experiencing social anxiety disorder are:s

1. Avoiding social activities that involve many people.

2. Tend to be silent and hide because of shame.

3. Do not dare go out alone, always depend on friends, and want to be accompanied wherever you go.

4. Always drink before dealing with social situations to calm nerves.

How Can You Overcome Social Anxiety and Depression?

Anxiety disorders and protracted depression must get proper treatment.

1. Psychotherapy

The type of psychotherapy used to deal with anxiety disorders and depression is usually cognitive behavioral therapy. Therapy teaches various ways of thinking, behaving, and reacting to social situations that help reduce anxiety and fear.

2. Treatment

There are three types of drugs used to treat this disorder, including anti-anxiety medications, antidepressants, and beta-blockers.

If you or someone close to you experiences depression or social anxiety, get to know the signs immediately and take medication.