The Cause of Social Anxiety Disorder:
The Behaviour You Use, For Coping
With Painful Social Memories

The cause of social anxiety disorder is the behaviour you use, as a means for coping with the painful memories of some social experiences from your past.

In the very beginning of your problems with social anxiety, a social event upset you. This event stimulated your central nervous system so much, that ever since it happened, you've been behaving in ways that keep you away from letting it happen again. THAT is what causes social phobia.

By treading on eggshells to avoid that uncomfortable stimulation, you've accidentally created social anxiety disorder by yourself.

You've avoided any situations that seem remotely similar to that first event, and by doing so, you've accidentally reprogrammed your mind with SAD. That's the prognosis for social anxiety.

Why Is This The Cause of
Social Anxiety Disorder?

Each time you do something, or avoid doing something, your subconscious mind soaks up that behaviour. Your subconscious mind has learnt social anxiety disorder, in the same way that your subconscious mind learns to drive a car - your behaviour taught your subconscious that process.

So, social anxiety disorder is a process stored in your subconscious mind. Your behaviour taught the subconscious this process. The way you've learnt social anxiety disorder is by what is known as "operant conditioning". It's how we learn everything from walking as a baby, to reading, to driving cars.

This is NOT Your Fault;
Don't Blame Yourself

When something feels so scary, it is only natural to do what you can to stop it from happening again. Millions of people have fallen down the same trap - me included.

You're innocent because you did what anybody else would do under the same excruciatingly uncomfortable circumstances. 

So, let's move on from self-blame, and head into overcoming social anxiety.

You can read the rest of this article if you like, but you don't need to know any more about what causes social anxiety disorder, to overcome it. 

That Above Is THE Cause. But There
Are 4 Things That Made
The Cause Possible

Whilst the paragraphs above show you why you suffer social anxiety, the ones below will tell you about the 4 things that made you behave the way you did.

1. Which of Your Past Experiences Are
Causes of Social Anxiety Disorder?

Clicking on the headline above will show you why the life experiences listed below can be the cause of social anxiety disorder. Like I said, looking into this is not required for overcoming social anxiety.

Your home environment whilst growing up

Aspects of the way you were raised as a child might have been a cause of social anxiety disorder.

If the people who brought you up were mean to you, this could have negatively stimulated your central nervous system (CNS) enough to start the SAD behavioural process.

Life alongside peers

Especially during high school, there's a risk that your peers might have done negative stuff to you.

Whether it happened high school or not, there's a good chance that some people you've had to spent time with have done stuff that has negatively stimulated your central nervous system and thus kick-started the cause of social anxiety disorder.

2. Can Aspects of Your Personality Be
Causes of Social Anxiety?

No, but certain characteristics can make you PRONE to social anxiety disorder. That's right, there are personality characteristics that make a person more likely than most, to struggle with social phobia. So what are they?

Having a very sensitive central nervous system

If your nervous system is more sensitive than most people's, you're more likely to get an extremely uncomfortable reaction to negative experiences.

When your reactions are more uncomfortable than most people's would be, it also means you are more likely to try out the behaviours that are the cause of social anxiety disorder.

Being an introvert

If you thrive on time spent alone, there's the obvious knock-on effect that you'll be spending less time with other people, and more time by yourself.

The more time you spend alone, the stronger the social anxiety disorder process can grow. 

Excessive time spent alone is an anxious behaviour that definitely makes SAD worse. This is because the subconscious learns to believe that if you're spending less time with other people, they're perhaps a threat to you.

Being naturally shy

Shyness is a sense of social carefulness, so by itself it's a good thing. But for someone trying to recover from social anxiety disorder, shyness can be a hindrance.

Shyness can stop you from going ahead with the non-anxious behaviours that cure social anxiety disorder. The longer you wait for yourself to put the non-anxious behaviour into practice, the greater your subconscious believes "doing this is threatening".

Essentially, shy people are hesitant, and hesitancy doesn't help to reprogram the subconscious mind in the way that it needs to be reprogrammed.

3. Four Reasons That Society Is A
Cause of Social Anxiety

Certain aspects of the Western society that we live in, are indirectly causing social anxiety. Such circumstances include:

1. Dominance is so highly regarded, that people will often bully to feel dominant. Bullying can lead to the 'victim' taking up new, anxious behaviour.

2. Competitiveness tempts us to compare ourselves to others, which often leads to disappointment and self criticism. You're more likely to take up SAD-creating behaviours if you're overly self critical.

3. Certain awesome personality traits, like sensitivity , are seen as a weakness in society. People with these traits are often judged weak and bullied.

4. Advancing technology allows us less face-to-face interaction. This helps the socially anxious to communicate, yet also practice social phobia-creating behaviours.

4. Causes of Social Phobia:
Are You Using The Mental Habits
That Make It Worse?

As you now know, your behaviour is the cause of social anxiety disorder, but there's also some common things that could be making it worse...

Thoughts you have that remind you "I'm not good enough" serve to strengthen your anxious behaviours.

We are all hardwired to want to be valued highly by other people. If your thoughts about yourself are negative, or you believe that other people's thoughts about you will be negative, then you're more likely to uptake anxious behaviours like excessive "staying home".

Clicking the above blue headline will show you what types of thoughts and mental habits might be making your social anxiety disorder worse.

You Don't Need To Know The Cause of Social
Anxiety Disorder To Overcome It!

In terms of overcoming social anxiety, knowing the cause is not required. We do not need to clearly know what caused your SA, to be able to get you on the road to recovery.

Curiosity killed the cat, but if you're still interested in social anxiety disorder causes, the 4 articles listed below will hopefully help you find your answer.