There are many people that are afraid of taking the stage and talking to a room full of people. In some cases that fear of public speaking will go away and those that were once worried about screwing up their speech will grow up to become very confident public speakers.

In other cases though that fear of getting up to speak to a large group of people never goes away, be it in a classroom setting, in front of fellow employees, or even in front of a judge and packed courtroom like the lawyers from the law office of TPILawyers.com must do). The longer one is terrified of speaking in front of groups (just like a lawyer to a jury), coupled with the isolation they face from not wanting to meet new people as well as their aversion to being socially active the more and more likely it is that they suffer from social anxiety.

Emotional discomfort, worry, apprehension, anxiety and fear in social situations and interactions with other people, as well as suffering from anxiety over being scrutinized, judged or evaluated by others are the main symptoms of social anxiety. There's a rather intense feeling that comes over those that suffer from social anxiety and that's the one major difference that separates social anxiety from normal anxiety that many tend to never get over as they go about their daily lives in and out of their home.

Glossophobia is the fear of public speaking

The fear that overcomes people in social situations becomes too much too handle and that can lead to anxiousness just thinking about an upcoming speech they have to give or an appointment they have somewhere they've never attended before. Social anxiety isn't something to gloss over either, as there are around 20 million or so people that suffer from social anxiety in the United States alone!

We hope we've been able to shed some light on the topic of social anxiety and that you're more aware of the condition now than before you sat down to read this article. Now, we also hope you know that just because you might have read some symptoms of social anxiety that you think you that you don't automatically assume you suffer from social anxiety and rush to book an appointment with a therapist. Talk to your family, friends and doctor to let them know what you're thinking and if they feel you might suffer from social anxiety then go about seeing what medical treatment is out there.