Would you rather be in the hospital with massive injuries than to give a presentation to a room full of people? Would you rather be lying in the casket than giving the eulogy? Does the thought of giving a speech cause your throat to get tight and make you want to faint? Are you scared to go to meetings for fear you might have to say something while everybody listens? Are you afraid to attend a social gathering for no obvious reason? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may be suffering from social anxiety disorder.

Also known as social phobia, social anxiety disorder is a disorder in which the sufferer experiences a severe or unreasonable fear of social gatherings where there is a chance that he or she may get embarrassed or ridiculed. Most of the time, these anxieties surface from an intense fear of being carefully watched or scrutinized - from simple things like the way they dress, look, talk or act, to significant activities like performing in front of a crowd, talking on the telephone to a stranger, giving a presentation or participating in an interview for a job application. This sort of phobia gives sufferers a feeling of being trapped or shut away from the world and greatly hinders them, keeping them from achieving important goals in their lives.

It has been said that social anxiety disorder is strongly linked to shyness. However, social phobia differs in the sense that it disrupts normal socializing functions. Probably everyone goes through a stage of shyness sometime in their life; however, when it becomes too much that it interrupts your daily life and relationships to the point where you are sick with worry, it is time to seek assistance. In order to be able to determine and treat this condition before it gets worse, it is good to know the signs and symptoms of social anxiety disorder.

People with social phobia exhibit 2 basic types of symptoms: emotional and physical. The emotional symptoms include: an intense fear of being in situations in which you don't know people, fear of situations in which you may be judged, worrying about embarrassing or humiliating yourself, fear that others will notice that you look anxious, anxiety that disrupts your daily routine, work, school or other activities, avoiding doing things or speaking to people out of fear of embarrassment, avoiding situations where you might be the focus of attention. The physical symptoms include: Blushing, profuse sweating, trembling or shaking, nausea, stomach upset, difficulty speaking, tightness in the throat, a shaky voice, muscle tension, confusion, palpitations, a pounding heart, diarrhea, cold and clammy hands and difficulty making eye contact.

Essentially, this phobia manifests a symptom of being overly anxious around other people. Sufferers think that other people are more confident than they are, that other people are better than them. They feel so uneasy being around people that it makes it difficult for them to eat, drink, work, ask questions, ask for dates or even go to the rest room when other people are around.

It's good to know that there is a cure for this condition. A number of people require medications, but there are natural ways to overcome social anxiety disorder. Being educated on the subject of the disorder and learning how to change thought patterns are the keys to banishing anxiety altogether.

Being shy is completely normal; everybody has gone through a similar phase. Moving past that stage is the difficult part. Ultimately, it ends up to building your confidence to a certain degree for you to be comfortable enough to live normally. If you've been diagnosed as a socio-phobic, it is not anything to be ashamed of. With a little bit of education and appropriate training, you'll slowly be able to socialize and operate normally within a group without being overly anxious.