Sal
Thanks for the reply, you have a good point about exposure there.
Apart from my overloading inquisitive mind, I'm doing ok, thanks.
Tracy
It is very difficult understanding people's problems, especially when they arn't clear like physical ailments. But I believe that by trying to understand other's problems, you can understand more of your own.
It's interesting that your fiance hasn't always been this way though.
Tiger
Great post!
It's interesting what you say about creating social anxiety. I know I've always had what you could call an 'avoidance personality' to some extent. Not sure if that was inbuilt in me, or whether it is just something that I've learnt from an early age, that's it's a whole lot easier to run! It's unfortunate that over 20 years down the line I'm just learning that I've been wrong about that for all these years. I got quite a bit of re-learning to do!
Questions still remain as to where the avoidance comes from though. Although that's a very big question, and I guess it's probably already rigourously debated between professionals the world over. Reflecting on my own memories though, I would say that it was maybe possible that I could have gone the other way, although I believe the 'avoidance' side of my personality was the stronger force, and won in the end. It is my belief that both, genetics, and learned behaviour, are big influences on your personality and what you become. I know many scientists will only argue for either one case or another, but I think this is a perfectly logical assumption to include both.
Which then brings you to neural pathways. It has been proven that prolonged activity within individuals can influence the structure of their brains over time. In which case the question of whether it is genetics or learned behaviour becomes more irrelevant, to a degree they are one and the same. The outcome of the physical brain structure is the same regardles. But it can be changed.
I know I said exposure didn't work for me before, but I quickly brushed past that and didn't really explain any of it. Exposing myself to people doesn't work (that doesn't sound right does it [:O] , you know what I mean ). All I'm saying is, just this type of exposure itself isn't enough, you need to interact with people, you need to overcome those fears of speaking, acting, etc, in front of people. So I guess there is an avenue for improvement, you just need to dig a little deeper to find it.
Your questions of inferiority are something that I've thought a lot about too, and has certainly affected me considerably. Growing up, everyone was an authority figure to me. All of your examples I can relate to. It's something that I have improved quite a lot over the past few years, but it is deep rooted and I still have quite a way to go. I have no doubt that this is a big influence on SA in many people. Unlike you though, I don't think I could pin-point where this inferiority complex comes from in my case. Just a thought, but maybe it has something to do with avoidance again, avoiding responsibility?
Thanks for the reply
Andrew
I think when I related SA to GAD I left quite a lot out of their too. If you keep reading my posts you'll get used to it , try not to look into that too much, It's just that I really don't have another way to explain it (words often fail me - apologies for any confusion).
OCD is an interesting take on it, and something I've often looked into myself. Again though, OCD can be another one with no clear defenitions. We label all of these different types of anxiety, yet often they are not all that different from each other and are all related in some form or other. I've posted about my obsessive thoughts on here before, and the general conclusion was that it isn't OCD. But at the same time, I certainly have obsessive thinking patterns. I think one that is probably common within social phobics is the obsessive thinking that goes on after speaking to people. You go over conversations again and again. Did you