Welcome to the Social Anxiety Alliance UK home page!
What is Social Anxiety Disorder?
Social anxiety disorder involves an excessive fear of social situations. Sufferers will often fear being embarrassed or worry about being negatively evaluated by others. Anticipatory anxiety and situational avoidance are common, and individuals may endure social situations with a high level of discomfort. Everyone’s experience of social anxiety is likely to be different. The scope of the anxiety may be focused on specific types of social situations or generalised to almost any social or public encounter. Please see here for technical definitions.
People with social anxiety are sometimes advised to just face their fears, with the idea that this will automatically improve things – but it’s often not that simple. Many people with social anxiety already face their fears on a regular basis (they have to!).
Progress often requires understanding how anxiety, self-focused attention, thoughts, feelings and behaviour influence each other to keep social anxiety going. Learning the skills to tackle each element, and the relationships between them, can break the cycle – see social anxiety maintenance cycle.
The anxiety can range from mild to more extreme forms that border on panic.
Children and young people with social anxiety may avoid school. Severe social anxiety has the potential to impact every aspect of communication and interaction with others.
Many people mask social anxiety through avoidance, safety behaviours or coping mechanisms. This is why it may not be obvious to those experiencing different levels of “social anxiety” whether they are actually experiencing “social anxiety disorder”.
However, in whichever way you experience social anxiety and however you try to manage it – make progress you should be able to we hope can find help and understanding on these pages.
The first steps usually involve learning about social anxiety (see NHS webpages and guidance, NICE Guidance, Australian CCI resources, self-help books) and then accessing What the NHS Offers, Other therapeutic approaches or Self-help to develop new thoughts, feelings, strategies and behaviours.
For further information about social anxiety see Find out more. Please also see our draft guide on how to make progess.
Our Mission and Goals
Our charity mission is to foster a society in which social anxiety is widely understood, with easy access to appropriate information, support and treatment so that no one has to face social anxiety alone.
Our goals:
(1) Help those affected by Social Anxiety find the information and resources they need.
(2) Increase public awareness and empathy towards social anxiety.
(3) Promote and improve access to appropriate and effective treatment.
Providing links to self-help resources
Providing information on accessing NHS and private therapy
A-Z
Collaborating with UK mental health charities to develop social anxiety information and resources
