Types of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD)
When thinking about social anxiety disorder, I often discuss two different general types of situations that people fear. The first is performance situation And these are situations where somebody might be observed by others. So for example, public speaking, eating in front of others, drinking in front of others, even writing in front of others, using public restrooms, for example. The person with social anxiety is worried about writing or eating in front of others often because they're afraid that their hands may shake and that other people will see that and judge them as a result of that.
So those are performance situations. The other type of situations that people with social anxiety disorder often fear and avoid are situations involving social interaction. So these are things like striking up a conversation, keeping a conversation going, parties, meetings, dating situations, any situations where people have to have one on one kind of conversation with others or with groups of people.