What Is Social Anxiety Disorder?

This informational handout provides a client-friendly overview of social anxiety disorder (SAD) and ways to address it.

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Professional version

Offers theory, guidance, and prompts for mental health professionals. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.

Client version

Includes client-friendly guidance. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.

Overview

Our ‘What Is … ?’ series is a collection of one-page information handouts for common mental health conditions. Friendly and explanatory, handouts in the series describe how it can feel to struggle with a difficulty and are reliable sources of information for your clients. Drawing upon established cognitive behavioral models, each handout has a particular focus on maintaining factors that might prevent the problem from getting better.

What Is Social Anxiety Disorder? is designed to help clients with social anxiety to understand more about their difficulties and how they can be addressed.

Why Use This Resource?

This resource is expertly designed to support clients by:

  • Describing key features of social anxiety disorder.
  • Explaining what keeps social anxiety disorder going.
  • Highlighting effective treatment options.
  • Fostering optimism about change and recovery.

Key Benefits

Educational

Provides a client-friendly description of social anxiety disorder.

Supportive

Normalizes the experience of social anxiety and helps clients feel understood.

Insightful

Sheds light on factors that may be contributing to these difficulties.

Informative

Describes effective treatments for social anxiety disorder.

Encouraging

Reassures clients and instills hope.

Who is this for?

Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD)

Designed to help clients affected by social anxiety.

Integrating it into your practice

01

Review

Discuss the common symptoms of social anxiety disorder.

02

Scaffold

Help the client understand how their symptoms fit together and make sense.

03

Explore

Explore what might be maintaining the client's difficulties.

04

Highlight

Point out treatments that can be effective for addressing these issues.

Theoretical Background & Therapist Guidance

Social anxiety is a common psychological difficulty characterized by an excessive fear of social situations that may lead to embarrassment or humiliation. While it is normal for individuals to experience occasional anxiety in social contexts, social anxiety disorder (SAD) manifests as a more significant and debilitating form of anxiety that can hinder daily functioning. Research indicates that the prevalence of SAD ranges from 2% to 7% within the general population every year.

The What Is Social Anxiety? information handout is designed to provide individuals suffering from social anxiety with a comprehensive understanding of their difficulties and treatment options.

What's inside

  • An overview of social anxiety disorder.
  • Insights into why social anxiety disorder persists, derived from the Clark & Wells (1995) cognitive model of social anxiety.
  • Instructions for using the resource with clients.
  • Key references for learning more about these difficulties.
Get access to this resource

FAQs

It provides insights into how people experience social anxiety, why it persists, and how it can be addressed.
It can be used to signpost clients to relevant treatments at assessment or help clients understand how their symptoms fit together at the start of therapy.

How This Resource Improves Clinical Outcomes

This resource enhances clinical outcomes by:

  • Providing a clear understanding and insight into social anxiety disorder.
  • Highlighting effective treatments for these issues.
  • Reassuring clients and fostering optimism.

References And Further Reading

  • American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-5®). American Psychiatric Pub.
  • Clark, D. M., & Wells, A. (1995). A cognitive model of social phobia. In R. Heimberg, M. Liebowitz, D. A. Hope, & F. R. Schneier (Eds.), Social phobia: Diagnosis, assessment and treatment (pp. 69–93). New York: Guildford Press.
  • Kessler, R. C., Chiu, W. T., Demler, O., & Walters, E. E. (2005). Prevalence, severity, and co-morbidity of 12-month DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62(6), 617-627.
  • National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. (2013) Social anxiety disorder: recognition, assessment, and treatment of social anxiety disorder. (Clinical guideline 159.) Retrieved from: http://guidance.nice.org.uk/CG159.
  • World Health Organization. (2019). ICD-11: International classification of diseases (11th revision). Retrieved from https://icd.who.int/