Social Anxiety is a mental health condition that generally makes people scared of interacting with a large number of people. Being the centre of attention makes them nervous and they have a fear of being judged. Some might say the pandemic, because of which we don’t have to interact with a large number of people on a daily basis, is the ideal situation for people who experience social anxiety.
In reality that’s not true at all, It has started making them even more scared of associating with people. In fact, people who are generally referred to as extroverts have also started facing the same problem due to lack of interaction. The number of people experiencing social anxiety has increased significantly. It makes them scared of doing activities that make them the centre of attention like giving a presentation, or as simple as placing a grocery order. Social anxiety is hard to deal with but not impossible.
It’s important to communicate and connect with people around us for our own mental health because bottling up our feelings never helps.
There are 2 major reasons behind the increase in social anxiety. First, isolation has made people used to not having to interact with others which have turned into unhealthy habit overtime. Second, The fear of catching coronavirus makes people even more anxious about meeting people and being a part of events that may have a long term effect. This can be very dangerous because social anxiety has a great effect on our mind and may make us isolate ourselves completely.
If a person gets too used to not having to face people or speak up, they might try to cut off and avoid any kind of interaction even with their friends. They will start to suppress their emotions and a communication gap will form. Communication is very important. Bottling up your feelings never helps and in turn worsens your mental health. This can lead to many serious issues such as depression.