I found a great article this morning about Mental Health and it’s nothing that any of us dealing with mental health issues already don’t know but it just enhances our knowledge and is a great article to pass on to those who think you are just “making things ups” or to “get over it”.

Mental Health – Don’t be shy
UVU Review
Also known as social anxiety, this disorder overwhelms its victims with an irrational fear of situations in which there is a potential to be judged or scrutinized by others. People affected by social phobia often have trouble doing everyday things, like going to the grocery store or going to work on the day of a meeting, because they feel overly self conscious and find it impossible to focus. Bad cases incite nausea, profuse sweating, trembling and trouble speaking, causing avoidance of all social situations at high costs

But therein lies the problem – victims of social phobia realize their fears are irrational. They know they shouldn’t feel the way they do, but they can’t help it. If they could think their way out of the problem, they most likely would. That’s why it’s called a disease, not an inadequacy.

Quantifying feelings is not really possible, so proving a mental illness exists is not exactly easy. Victims overwhelmed by the idea that they are responsible for the way they feel can be, in a sense, bullied out of seeking help, diagnosis or treatment. The lack of significant biological evidence and the weight of social norms are stacked against the mentally ill. Some viable treatments are not even covered by mainstream health coverage.

What it comes down to is that the idea of mental health is subjective. Since there is no universal norm for cognitive behavior, any definition of deviation from this non-existent norm will inevitably lead to controversy.

Social phobia doesn’t get as much attention as other mental illnesses because with the others, there is often semblance physical evidence that something is wrong. With social anxiety, evidence is either smaller or nonexistent, and symptoms can easily be mistaken for other, benign issues.

Approximately 15 million American adults have social phobia, worrying weeks or even months about situations that most people encounter on a daily basis without a second thought. Psychotherapy and medication can be used to treat the disease, but someone who didn’t think the disease was real would never seek the necessary treatment. Just like depression and other mental illnesses, social phobia needs to be recognized and treated appropriately.

To read the full article

This post originally found at the “Raising Socially Anxious Children Blog”