Social Anxiety Disorder Symptoms
6. Underdeveloped Social Skills
Social skills, as with any learned behavior, require practice to improve. If people with social anxiety avoid social situations, they may have a difficult time developing social skills that other people take for granted. Even if they cannot avoid uncomfortable encounters, they may be so overwhelmed by negative feelings that they go into survival mode and shut down the ability to learn something new.
This issue can become a self-perpetuating cycle. You need to engage socially with others in order to learn how to do so. If you are anxious about social situations, you may actively avoid them. This avoidance can perpetuate a lack of knowledge and skill. Knowing that you lack these skills can make you more anxious about future social interactions. A qualified therapist can help you break the cycle so that you develop social skills and the confidence to use them.
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