It can start off just fine, you are invited to a party. You dream of all the events that might take place at the party. Then the big night arrives and suddenly the excitement turns into nervousness. "You stand around awkwardly, nurse a drink and ogle the chatty people around you. You feel shy." Just about everyone is timid at some point, and plenty of people almost half of the population qualify as being shy most of the time. Most Americans, and even many doctors have never heard of social anxiety disorder, yet it affects more than "5 million Americans, according to the National Institute of Mental Health". .
Drug companies that are eager to expand their markets are now spotlighting the disorder and advertising medications to treat it. "In the quick-fix society we live in, it's hard not to be skeptical: in inhibition a certifiable psychological problem? For clinicians who treat the problem, the answer is yes. "We see people whose lives have been trashed because of social anxiety disorder," says Richard Heimberg, head of the Adult Anxiety Clinic at Philadelphia's Temple University. "It's a horrid part of their existence." Social Anxiety disorder is more than just a bad case of shyness. Intense and unremitting, it can make people feel worthless and powerless to move forward in their lives. Like almost every other human condition, the disorder appears to be triggered by a complex mix of genes and environment. It does run in families. Technology is now helping to pinpoint changes in socially anxious brains. By using MRI scans doctors have found that when people with the disorder are shown pictures of angry faces their amygdala (the brain's fear center) lights up more activity than it does in people without the condition. Science is looking to see if the amygdala itself is overreacting or if the problem starts even earlier in the processing of fear. "People with social anxiety disorder have distorted thinking," says Jerilyn Ross, head of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America.