Who experiences social anxiety symptoms? Is it only people who have some deeply repressed unconscious psychological trauma? NO! Is it only people who are shy or people who have low self-esteem? NO! Is it due to some sort of failure to develop good social skills? NO! People who have social anxiety that reaches the point that it is interfering with their enjoyment of life are simply those among us who have a very powerful ability to practice what is called mind-sight, combined with a self-perpetuating process of avoidance and anxiety. The ultimate cause of both of these underlying mental processes is genetics. You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s not your fault, and yes, you CAN improve your lot in life by focusing on tactics that recognize the true underlying cause of social anxiety.

Who else recognizes the following patterns?

1. More anxiety about someone noticing your anxiety than about having the anxiety in the first place.

2. Dread of situations in which you could not easily disappear from the spot light if you needed to.

3. People thinking you are, “quiet,” when that’s not the real you.

4. Being afraid that someone will notice that your voice is shaking, your hand is sweating, your face is blushing, or some other physical sign of anxiety.

5. Wanting to speak up and show people how interesting and smart you can be, only to find that the thought of speaking up is enough to start your heart pounding or your breath to feel like it’s been sucked out of you.

These patterns are complex, but the cause of social anxiety disorder is caused by your genetically inherited personality traits more than anything else. Over time, what happens is that your hypersensitivity to the way others are perceiving you leads to situations that are very uncomfortable or embarrassing (though to someone else it would seem like a normal life experience). Normal life experiences like blushing in front of others and having someone point this out and laugh can lead someone with a social anxiety disorder trait to become hyper vigilant to the normal experience of blushing. As you mind begins to label blushing as a threat, you may begin to become super tuned-in to the slightest inkling of blushing, which then causes you to feel embarrassed at the thought that you might blush…and BAM…you are blushing out of nowhere and you look at the floor instead of making eye contact, and before you know it, you’ve been labeled, “quiet.” This is just one tiny example of the many variations that social anxiety disorder can take. Yours will be unique.

The mind-sight issue is at the root of all of the symptoms. Mind-sight is the process by which you mentally project yourself into the other person’s perspective and then look back at yourself through their eyes. This gives you a great social advantage (unless it takes over as in social anxiety disorder). You are able to self-monitor to present yourself in a positive light to others. People who are low on this ability are the are at a great disadvantage in relationships and business ( Think of someone you have known who seems clueless about how they talk on and on without checking to see if the listener is still interested. Or think of someone who doesn’t seem to realize that other people brush their hair and don’t start personal conversations in the grocery store line). Mind-sight allows you to predict what others are thinking about you. If the mind-sight ability is genetically wired into you to a very strong degree, all it takes is one or two situations that cause you anxiety about how others are perceiving you, and then the process of feeling anxious about a recurrence of those situations sets in. Once you begin to consciously or unconsciously anticipate a certain kind of situation with fear, you will become more aware of the first signs that the situation is approaching.

Trying to “not feel anxious” doesn’t work. In fact, to stick with the example from above, trying to not feel anxious can lead a person who fears blushing to become more likely to blush out of anxiety that they might be approaching a situation that would be embarrassing if they blushed. Translate this to a more general “feeling of anxiety” in social situations and you get a sensation of increasing quiet feelings that seem to take over and suppress your natural spontaneity even before you arrive at the destination where you begin to anxiously anticipate that you might get that “quiet feeling” with all the unwanted judgements of others about seeming shy and quiet. Avoiding the sensation you don’t want ends up creating it. And for a person who wants to know the cause of social anxiety disorder, that’s the crucial point to understand beyond genetics. It’s this point that allows people with social anxiety disorder to make a change in the way their mind and body reacts, and that’s what the site, www.anxiety-counselor.com is all about. See that page: the cause of social anxiety disorder for more information on how to put these ideas to practical use in reversing the effects of social anxiety on your life.

Another contributing factor to your susceptibility to panic attacks or even a trigger for anxiety episodes themselves is an improper diet and dehydration. 

During times of stress or worry, people have one of two tendencies;

- they either eat too much – or they stop eating enough

Either one of these conditions could be placing an undue burden on your body or mind. Starving yourself causes your body to go into survival mode, the same type of state that your body turns to during a fight or flight episode. Your body is now more susceptible to a panic attack and anxiety symptoms. 

Likewise, overeating can cause your body to experience unpleasant physical sensations. Overeating can lead to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, weight gain and general sluggishness. 

These problems can all contribute to your body feeling far worse than it should, mimicking the physical symptoms of anxiety.  Moreover, the increasing numbers appearing on that scale might cause you to go into a panic attack all on your own!

In addition to a proper diet, supplying your body with enough fluids is a crucial part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and reducing the potential for anxiety problems.

Dehydration is a great way to send your body into panic mode. Drinking soda or coffee all day does not equal hydration! Soda, while liquid, is not providing the hydration level your body needs and it is full of caffeine, sugar or sugar substitutes.

These are great ways to get your body keyed up, a definite no, no for anxiety sufferers. Coffee comes loaded with these same problems. Try drinking a bottle of water a day and I´m not talking about a little bottle either. Get a liter size bottle of water and fill it up each day. Spend your day consuming that and in a few weeks you won´t believe the difference in the way you feel. 

I´m not telling you anything you don´t already know. We are constantly barraged with information about how to take better care of ourselves, stop smoking, lessen our caffeine intake, eat a proper, moderated and nutritious diet, and exercise regularly.

This is the feel good prescription that we have been receiving for years from doctors, TV hosts and anyone else who felt compelled to tell us how to lead a better life. While this prescription is certainly a good one, most people neglect to tell you, that a deficiency in any one of these areas can greatly affect you in the others.

Most of us think if we exercise a couple of times a week, we can still eat McDonald´s. Wrong! 

Most of us think if we stop smoking, we can drink soda. Wrong! 

We have to be cognizant of all the areas of our health and work to improve each one of them. A poor diet can affect our body, even if we exercise regularly.Therefore, you are still susceptible to panic attacks and anxiety based phobias and fears. Your inattention to your overall health could be having more of a negative effect on your emotional well being than you think.      

Your physical health can have a profound effect on your mental health. While you may think your anxiety problem is all in your mind that is far from the truth. The body and mind feed off of each other and lack of health in one part can lead to problems in the other.  

If you´ve had panic attacks, think about it for a minute. Was the panic attack only in your mind or did you experience physical effects as well? 

You probably had a racing heart and shortness of breath; you may have had tingling in your extremities and problems with your digestive functions. These sensations probably made you even more upset and nervous, adding fire to the panic attack overtaking you. 

The same is true for anxiety sufferers. It is important to get your physical and mental house in order. Taking proper care of your body, through proper diet and exercise, will help you manage your stress and anxiety more effectively. 

Panic attacks usually involve sudden development of emotions such as anxiety, fear or extreme feeling of discomfort. These emotions are followed by some additional symptoms. 

Panic attacks have always been associated to cardiovascular risks such as anger, depression and even hostility. Hypertension is yet another symptom associated to panic attacks. Anxiety or stress is known to add up to adverse effects of cardiovascular problems including enhanced blood clotting tendency, coronary artery spasm or heart rhythm disturbances.

Does stress actually increases the risk of heart attack?

According to a recent research it has been indicated that people with stress or panic disorders tend to possess a more active coagulation System and inhibited fibrinolysis. The result was not expected as there was no injury other than some breaks in the skin occurred due to blood sampling.

This clearly indicates that the clotting was unbalanced. This can be quite dangerous because a coronary artery may get blocked in extreme cases. However, the levels of coagulation measured were just within the range considered normal.

This research came up with an explanation of a data displaying. People with stress or panic disorder being four times more prone to die of a heart attack or stroke. Hence, when there are several other factors including smoking or obesity to enhance the risk of heart disease, a stress disorder can enhance the balance of coagulation further to danger zone. 

It is very important to diagnose stress or anxiety disorder as soon as possible. Treatment given at an early stage tends to inhibit the chances of any kind of heart disease.  

Anxiety or stress is also known to make a patient get a feeling like heart attack due to rapid pulse and shortness of breath. According to a study of more than three thousand older women, it is suggested that shortness of breath or rapid pulse experienced due to stress may evoke a feeling similar to heart attack and even result in serious heart troubles in the long run.

Studies have also revealed that women who have experienced a full blown panic or stress attack in 6 months were more vulnerable to stroke or heart attack as compared to those who didn´t experienced stress or panic attack.

The researchers also considered a lot of other risk factors such as high blood pressure, smoking, depression and in activity. However, they still came to a conclusion that stress and panic attack enhanced risks of heart related disease.

Women undergoing symptoms of post menopause tend to take a lot of stress and this is known to be one of the major causes of cardiovascular risk. Mental stress is always bad for health and may result in a lot of adverse effects.

A lot of scientific evidences have suggested that metal stress tend to affect the cardiovascular System adversely. Tasks promoting stress can result in blood flow decrease to the heart that ultimately result in a lot of heart related diseases such as a heart attack.

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