New research on social anxiety surprises – OBI Online

The results come from a large study of social anxiety and avoidant personality of Public Health (FHI).

Earlier it been aware that both heredity and environment play a role in some developing social anxiety. But the genes were having such a great importance, were not scientists aware of:

– The risk of developing social anxiety is associated with avoidant personality traits. These traits can do to avoid situations you experience as creepy. Many also uses hedging strategies to hide the anxiety. In the long term it can lead to more anxiety, says Fartein Ask Torvik, a researcher at the department of genetics, environment and mental health by FHI.

Swing
FHI has followed around 3000 Norwegian twins over a decade to find out more about how mental illness develops. The results for social anxiety among women who now are ready. The prevalence of social anxiety has been shown to be somewhat lower among men.

Some social anxiety in some situations is quite natural for most, but when nervousness becomes so strong anxiety that prevents expression of life, it becomes a diagnosis. Social anxiety disorder or social phobia can lead to significant, persistent discomfort. The person struggling out among people and may have reduced ability to work.

The twins were first interviewed about the year 2000/2001 and again in 2010/2011, they were in their 20s first and in the 30s the second time.

According Torvik had 3.7 percent of the participants social anxiety disorder in their 20s, while a further 10.1 percent had symptoms, but not sufficiently to get a diagnosis. Ten years later, respectively 5.1 percent and 8.6 percent social anxiety disorder or symptoms of this. A total percentages of 13.8 and 13.7 per cent, but it was not necessarily the same as those suffering from social anxiety in their 20s and 30s.

– The anxiety was less stable than expected. Two-thirds of those who had social phobia when they were interviewed in their 20s, no longer met the diagnostic criteria when they were interviewed ten years later. For individuals swings this therefore part up and down, says Torvik.

Meaning
researchers found that the genetic risk was there all the time, so people with hereditary risk has a lower threshold than others to react to environmental stresses.

– Social anxiety is highly heritable. While environmental matters most in the short term, does your genes a crucial role in the long term, says Torvik.

– What does it mean?

– This means that the impact of environmental events, such as being bullied or losing their job, is of limited duration. The effect of those events that makes you get social anxiety at one point simply goes over. The fact that social anxiety disorder after all is so little stable, can provide hope for those struggling with this, says Torvik.

When it comes to long-term risk associated with genes, meaning the findings that one can not completely get rid of the risk

– If one has avoidant personality traits, has a high risk of experiencing social anxiety in periods. Even if one has had a good, secure upbringing, one can experience social anxiety. But one has an inherited risk, one can learn to defy the tendency of avoidance and know what can be done if the anxiety kicks in. Although the genetic risk is persistent, it does not imply that one has to live with the symptoms. There are good treatments for social anxiety. The treatment is to be exposed to the feared situations and accept that one feels anxiety.