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C. Lee

Ms. Jizi

UWRT 1104

3 November 2017

Bibliography

Andrews, Gavin. I Feel Shy. How To Deal With Social Anxiety, Social Phobia and Shyness |

THIS WAY UP, Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety and Depression, 1998,

thiswayup.org.au/how-do-you-feel/shy/.

Social anxiety is caused through the lack of serotonin. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter in

your brain. The lack of serotonin can also lead to depression and other mental illnesses. When we

are in a threatened state, our fight or flight mechanism kicks in. For those with social anxiety, their

threat is psychological. When the fear of being judged, humiliated, or criticized is felt, the fight or

flight kicks in. This can lead to many symptoms, both physical and behavioral. Some physical

symptoms include: nausea, heavy breathing, sweaty hands, shaking, the mind going blank, not

being able to concentrate etc. Some behavioral symptoms include avoiding the situation, leaving

an event early, focusing on oneself, keeping quiet, not looking at people etc. As mentioned earlier,

the lack of serotonin is a prime cause of social anxiety. Therefore, medications can be prescribed

to fix this problem. The category of medications prescribed to those with social anxiety are SSRIs

or Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors. Some examples of SSRIs include: Prozac (Fluoxetine),

Lexapro (Escitalopram), Zoloft (Sertraline). Another solution to social anxiety is therapy or most

specifically: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). The goal of CBT is to change the way you

think. CBT is also a process that builds up. Those who undergo CBT are exposed to their fears

slowly but surely until they are comfortable or until they figure out how to cope in such situations.
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This source talks more about the science behind social anxiety and talks about basic

methods used to cure social anxiety. I explain this in the source below, but I am aiming to use

this information to educate people and eliminate misconceptions about mental illnesses. The

source below explains what social anxiety is and basic facts about the illness. This source talks

about the science behind the illness and what role the chemicals in the brain play. The main reason

why I wanted to use this source is because of the breathing techniques that I saw at the bottom of

the site. It may seem tiny and irrelevant to talk about, but breathing techniques are important to

those affected by social anxiety, anxiety, PTSD, bipolar disorder, depression and more. Simply

breathing incorrectly during a time of distress can cause a downpour of problems. By knowing

breathing techniques, these downpours of problems can be avoided.

Gavin Andrews is a professor of psychiatry at the University of New South Wales in

Sydney. He started THIS WAY UP in 1998 with his team of psychiatrists and clinical

psychologists at St. Vincents Hospital. This organization is a non-profit organization sponsored

by the Australian government and the Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety and Depression

(CRUfAD). Professor Gavin Andrews has been on the academic staff of UNSW School of

Psychiatry since 1964. He has written over 600 books and papers. He is on the Most Highly Cited

list for psychology and psychiatry with over 40,000 citations. He is also the Director of the UNSW

School of Psychiatry where he heads the Anxiety and Depression Clinic and Clinical Research

Unit for Anxiety and Depression.

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Beidel, Deborah C, and Samuel M. Turner. Shy Children, Phobic Adults: Nature and Treatment

of Social Anxiety Disorder. Washington, D.C: American Psychological Association, 2007.

Print.

Social anxiety is "a marked and persistent fear of one or more social or performance

situations in which the person is exposed to unfamiliar people or possible scrutiny by others"

(Beidel and Turner 13). Socially anxious people have trouble attending social events, keeping a

conversation going, meeting new people, public speaking, eating in front of others and more.

Socially anxious people are afraid of embarrassing themselves and acting foolish in front of others.

An important fact about this illness is that those who have social anxiety will recognize and

understand the excessiveness of their fears and actions. In other words, they understand that they

have a problem. This is the one thing that differentiates the socially anxious from the shy. Shy

people are innately reserved and, although reserved, have no problem with being socially

interactive. Some have concluded that shyness is just the label given to those on the low end of the

social anxiety spectrum. Socially anxiety was found to be genetic. Not every single case is genetic,

but there are certainly some that are. Fifty-eight percent of people were determined to have

acquired social anxiety from a traumatic event. Other researchers have concluded that social

anxiety is a conditioned response. Social anxiety can also be a cycle created by parents. If the

parents of a child avoid social situations and are "afraid" socially, the children will also become

socially fearful which causes a cycle to form. Many with social anxiety are secretive about their

condition because they don't want to show embarrassment from something that (from an outsider's

point of view) they should have control over. Regarding prevalence of this illness, percentages of

those with social anxiety are lowest in East Asian countries, especially in Korea and Japan.

Percentages of those with social anxiety are highest in Caucasians. In children, girls reported
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having more fears than in boys. However, in clinical populations, both men and women were,

relatively, equally affected by social anxiety. Although medications have been proven to aid with

social anxiety, many parents, especially non-Caucasian parents, were reluctant towards their

children taking any medications for the illness. The issues that arose amongst the parents included:

the never-ending list of side effects, the dosage given may not be accurate, and a dependency could

occur.

I decided to use this source as a foundation to my inquiry. Honestly, I already knew a lot

of what I read from this source. Although I did learn new things, I wanted to present research on

the basics of social anxiety for my audience. Frankly speaking, there are a lot of people who dont

know what this illness is and what it can do. Everyone assumes that the socially anxious are just

shy but its more than that. This is the part of my inquiry where I try and destroy misconceptions

about mental illnesses, specifically in my case, social anxiety. I think that it is important to educate

people before presenting more in-depth detail about the topic. Personally, I know that if I dont

present this information, the rest of my inquiry is going to mean nothing to my audience.

Deborah C. Beidel (PhD) is currently a professor of psychiatry, director of child psychiatry,

and director of the Anxiety, Stress, and Trauma Research Network at Pennsylvania State

University College of Medicine (Hershey Medical Center) in Hershey. She has authored and co-

authored over 180 journal articles, books, and chapters of books on the topic of anxiety disorders.

She has served on numerous editorial boards for psychological journals such as the Journal of

Consulting and Clinical Psychology, the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, and Behavior

Therapy. She has been the chair of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America Childrens Task

Force and the National Institute of Mental Health Child and Adolescent Psychosocial Research

Consortium. She is currently the chair of the American Psychological Association Division 12.
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She has won numerous awards including the 1990 New Researcher Award from the Association

for Advancement of Behavior Therapy and 1995 Distinguished Educator Award from the

Association of Medical School Psychologists. She is also a diplomate of the American Board of

Professional Psychology in both clinical and behavioral psychology. Samuel M. Turner (PhD) was

teaching as a professor of psychology and was the co-director of Maryland Center for Anxiety

Disorders at the University of Maryland in College Park. He passed away in 2005. He has authored

and co-authored over 200 journal articles, books, and chapters of books on the topic of anxiety

disorders. He had served on the editorial boards of the American Psychologist (associate editor-

in-chief), the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Behavior Therapy, and the

Behaviour Research and Therapy. He also served on many national committees/panels including

the Extramural Scientific Advisory Board of the National Institute of Mental Health. He also was

awarded the 1997 American Psychological Associations Award for Distinguished Contribution

to Professional Knowledge and the 1997 Distinguished Contribution to Research Award from the

Association of Medical School Psychologists. He also held diplomates from the American Board

of Professional Psychology in clinical and behavioral psychology.

Burton, Neel. Building Confidence and Self-Esteem. Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 30

May 12, https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hide-and-seek/201205/building-

confidence-and-self-esteem

Self-esteem and self-confidence issues has its roots in traumatic experiences as children or

negative life events. There are many ways to boost your self-confidence and self-esteem. These

are a few. Although these may seem obvious, getting enough sleep, exercising, and eating healthy

can have a big impact on how you feel about yourself. Keeping your living space clean and keeping
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up with your hygiene can also boost your self-esteem and self-confidence. Being productive can

help you feel like you have a purpose and that you know what you are doing. Boosting your self-

confidence and self-esteem also means that you need to treat yourself occasionally. Be good to

your body and mind. Reducing stress is also a key in building your confidence and self-esteem.

Thinking positively (about yourself and the world), being nice and kind, and talking with others

(spending time with friends and family) has also been shown to build confidence and self-esteem.

Finally, setting realistic goals for yourself and reaching them can give you a great sense of

accomplishment that you can feel daily which will no doubt help boost your confidence and self-

esteem.

I intentionally searched for a source that focused on building confidence and self-esteem

because, personally, this is an issue for me. I know that my social anxiety also stems from a lack

of confidence. Others may not be in the same boat as I am about this, but because I know a root of

my problem, I decided to go after it and fix it. I had a general idea of how to build confidence but

because I wasnt one-hundred percent sure, I thought that this would be worthwhile for my inquiry.

I learned a lot from this website. I didnt realize that simply eating healthy could boost my

confidence. I didnt realize that talking to others (something that I avoid) would help me with my

confidence boost. The thing that I dont like doing is the thing that I have to do to help myself out.

I also concluded that this would be helpful for my audience because I am sure that there are people

like me who know that they need to boost their confidence to improve and they just dont know

how.

Neel Burton studied neuroscience and medicine from 1996 to 2002. After leaving the field,

he returned in 2003 to specialize in psychiatry at the University of Oxford while also studying for

his Masters in the subject of philosophy at the University of London. He is now teaching at Oxford
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University. He has won numerous awards including the British Medical Associations Young

Authors Award, the Medical Journalists Association Open Book Award, and the Society of

Authors Richard Asher Prize. He is the author of The Meaning of Madness, The Art of Failure,

Living with Schizophrenia, Growing from Depression: A Self-Help Guide, Master Your Mind and

many more.

Butler, Gillian. Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness: A Self-Help Guide Using Cognitive

Behavioral Techniques. New York: New York University Press, 2001. Print.

People who are shy or have social anxiety will have trouble with being assertive. Socially

anxious people will resort to using passivity or aggression to deal with assertion. Aggression is

advantageous to them because it will keep people away or keep them distant (something that

socially anxious people want). Passivity is advantageous to the socially anxious because it solves

problems quickly and will not cause more problems. Passivity is also used by the socially anxious

to keep conflicts at bay and to keep everyone happy even if the cost is their own happiness.

Assertiveness is simple: What you want does not and never will trump what someone else wants.

Based on this assessment of assertiveness, you should never feel bad for saying no. Its okay to

say no. If what you agree to is not as important as what you will lose then saying no is okay. If

you say no that should be all you say. There is no reason for you to feel the need to explain. If

you dont like it or dont want to do it, say no and move on.

Within my source, I focused on a chapter dealing with assertiveness. I have an issue with

saying yes to a lot of things. I wanted to find out how I can say no without making myself feel

bad about it. There were tips in the chapters that I didnt know about and that I will definitely use.

I also learned a way to be able to take compliments without feeling awkward about it. All of this

is relevant to my topic because those with social anxiety have difficulty with being assertive. They
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use either passivity or aggression, neither option is ideal, to deal with assertiveness. Socially

anxious people also have a hard time accepting compliments because receiving a compliment

makes them feel as if they are at the center of attention which is something that they do not want.

The book, Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness is one of nine books in the

Overcoming series which was started in 1993 by Peter Cooper. Peter Cooper teaches at Reading

University in the Psychology Department. He is also a Research Fellow at the University of

Cambridge. Gillian Butler, the author of Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness, is a Fellow of

the British Psychological Society and helped found the Academy of Cognitive Therapy. She has

clinically researched for over ten years at the University of Oxford. Her work has included

developing and evaluating different treatments for social phobia and GAD. She is also the co-

author of Manage Your Mind: The Mental Fitness Guide and of Psychology: A Very Short

Introduction.

Chand, Suma. Social Anxiety: Imperfect is the New Perfect. Anxiety and Depression

Association America, July 2017, https://adaa.org/learn-from-us/from-the-experts

/blog-posts/social-anxiety-imperfect-new-perfect

Socially anxious people fear being criticized, scrutinized, and judged which leads to them

trying to be perfect beyond possible. This action is called maladaptive perfectionism. Adaptive

perfectionism is the action of striving for a healthy level of perfection. Those who perform adaptive

perfectionism in a social setting will hold oneself to "regular" standards or to a recognized, agreed

upon standard given by society. They won't go any further than those standards. Maladaptive

perfectionism is striving for unhealthy levels of perfection, levels of perfection that no human

could reach. Maladaptive perfectionism is also motivated out of the fear of failure. Those who

suffer from maladaptive perfectionism have distorted thinking that makes them believe their
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imperfections are worse than they are. Socially anxious people should try to move away from

maladaptive perfectionism in gradual stages while also realizing that nobody is perfect even if the

mind makes them out to be.

I came upon this source unintentionally but as I was reading over the blog, I realized that

this was another aspect of social anxiety that I was personally battling. I do it unconsciously, but I

am always striving for a level of perfection that, humanely, is not possible. There was once when

I needed to go down to the lobby of my dormitory to fill my bottle with water. I knew that I was

not going to run into a lot of people, in fact, a majority of my time would be spent in the elevator

(going down and then going back up). You would have expected me to walk out in my pajamas.

Instead, I changed my outfit three times, pulled and tugged on my hair until I was satisfied, and

changed out my shoes more than once. It took me about twenty minutes until I was ready to go

down, simply to fill my water bottle up. It has truly become a pain in the butt and I know it is a

problem. If I stop worrying so much about doing everything perfectly and realizing that no one is

perfect, then my anxiety can be alleviated.

Suma Chand is a professor at St. Louis University School of Medicine. She is also the

director of the Cognitive Behavior Therapy Program in the Department of Psychiatry and

Behavioral Neuroscience at the St. Louis University School of Medicine. She is a member of the

ADAA Public Education Committee and she is a board member of the National Social Anxiety

Center (NSAC). The Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) was formed in

1979. The original name for this organization was The Phobia Society of America, but has evolved

into the ADAA. This is an international nonprofit organization which is focused on the prevention

and treatment of many mental illnesses. It also focuses on curing anxiety, depression, obsessive
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compulsive disorder, and other trauma-related illnesses. This organization is attempting to

accomplish this through educating individuals, researching, and putting the research into practice.