Social Anxiety Nature or Nurture

In the last article, I talked about how having an Avoidant Personality Disorder is really just being self-concsious, having low self-esteem, and thinking that other people are better than you. So where does it come from? Nature vs. Nurture again. Were socially anxious people born this way or did something happen in their environment that made it so?

As with virtually all psychological disorders, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

I think that in order to have social anxiety, you most likely were born with a certain temperment. That temperment being that you were more sensitive to things compared to others. Maybe you were more likely to feel hurt or cry if someone was picking on you. If you received rejection, you were much more likely to take it personally, which would ofcourse impact you in a very negative way.

If a person born sensitive lived a healthy lifestyle with only minor bumps in the road, social anxiety might not fully develop.

If a person was born with thick skin, but happened to live a life where they always felt inferior, I think that it would be possible for them to develop social anxiety, but the chances are probably slim. There needs to be a certain disposition, compounded with life experiences that usually cause the hyper awareness of others around you.

Anyway, although it's kind of interesting to know the history of how something came to be, and would be useful if you ever raise a child, in order to fix your own life, the focus should be on the here and the now. Let's not get bogged down about the past.

Cheers,

Mister A