5 ms·
Hmmm. Much of what is described here is not social anxiety. He is really describing what seems to be Asperger's. The two are very often co-morbid and can be con
by robotcookies 11y ago
Hmmm. Much of what is described here is not social anxiety. He is really describing what seems to be Asperger's. The two are very often co-morbid and can be confused as being the same but they are not. While they often occur together, they do not always occur together. You can have one and not the other.
I have social anxiety but not Aspergers but I have spent time with others who have Aspergers. The thing about staring into someone's eye and not understanding social cues/norms is a trait of Aspergers and not social anxiety.
- eivarv 11y agoYeah, you're right. My first thoughts were: - Introversion != social anxiety (disorder) - Nonverbal communication problems != social anxiety (disorder) EDIT: Forgot to mention that the article is great in the sense that it describes the author's experience vividly. It just doesn't seem to be generalizable to all those affected by social anxiety disorder.
- thescriptkiddie 11y agoCan you describe what social anxiety by itself is like?
- ksenzee 11y agoThis comment is a good description: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10441816 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10441816
- a3voices 11y agoYou know the feeling when you're a kid in elementary school and you have to present in front of the whole class? It's like that.
- robotcookies 11y agoIt's a morbid fear of social interaction. Some situations are worse than others. And, for me, it isn't caused by confusion over what to do in social settings (although when I was younger I had confusion due to lack of experience in social settings). I don't have any difficulty with social cues or understanding innate human interaction. I am popular in the workplace because I'm forced to interact with others. Almost all my friends are from work. By contrast, none of my neighbors know me and probably think I'm odd because they never see me. That's because, when I have a choice, I will always pick avoiding social interaction due to fear. Whenever I leave, I check the peephole to make sure no one is around. I have gone a week or more without leaving my home. If not for needing food and to go to work, I could probably go months without leaving. And this is driven by fear of human interaction. I can appear completely normal in social interactions. I understand eye contact and not to linger too long. I understand the need to balance talk and listening when having a conversation. I get jokes and subtle humor. Fist pumps get me excited. No one had to teach me these things. And most of my co-workers think I'm completely normal in social settings, though on the quiet side. But when given a choice I withdraw due to fear. In High School, I spent every single lunch hiding in the library or a bathroom stall. I did not know what the cafeteria looked like. I didn't go to a single party or a single date due to crippling fear. But this fear was not the result of feeling confused over social cues or behavior.
- brazzledazzle 11y agoThis all sounds very familiar. Thanks for writing this, I think I'll make an appointment.
- firebones 11y agoOut of curiosity, roughly how old are you? You describe me at an earlier age, and while I can't say it gets BETTER...it gets "better" as you age. The other thing I'm really interested in is a deep examination of your comment "When I have a choice...due to fear." Is it always due to fear, or due to preference? That could be a breakthrough for you, to examine this...there's a difference between the two, and a lot of times I would ascribe that feeling to fear, it was actually preference...a choice to avoid the fear. If I could push through that--rarely by my own will, but more often just by circumstances--the fear would subside and I would realize that the preference was what was broken. Not that it is fixed now, or anything...
- Terr_ 11y agoThat describes my situation too... But I'm not sure I'd label it "social anxiety" in the same sense as an "anxiety attack" -- it's not a flight/fight response. Rather, it's like a pervasive pessimism. A more-cerebral problem, where you tell yourself that social interaction requires a safe reason (classes, work) and avoidance due to fear of some future hypothetical failure.
- tpiha 11y agoThis is exactly how it feels for me too.
- hachre 11y agoAsperger's is now called Autism Spectrum Disorder (High Functioning Autism). Please don't use the outdated term anymore. It has become mislabeled and misused over the last decades and is thus very unspecific and misleading.
- Almaviva 11y agoAutism Spectrum Disorder is even less specific, and is in the process of being mislabeled and misused in this decade. Pick your poison?
- junto 11y agoAutism Spectrum Disorder is an encompassing term for all different types of autism. It makes the point that autism has different forms and falls along a spectrum. Asberger's falls on that spectrum.
- stefantalpalaru 11y agoIt's actually more political than you think: http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/08/autism-history-aspergers-kanner-psychiatry/398903/ http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/08/autism-his...
- drugsAreBad0001 11y agoAs someone who was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome in my teens, please shut up. It's not offensive to anyone if it's not being used as a derogatory term. Please stop advocating for less-descriptive language.
- hachre 11y agoYou are confused. It has nothing to do with offensive. It has precisely to do with less-descriptive. Aspergers was misused by therapists for over 40 years while others in other parts of the world used it correctly. The terms I mentioned were introduced in the last 10 years to clean the mess up.