One of the pillars of social anxiety disorder is the fear of being judged. This test is certainly not diagnostic. It is meant for education purpose. If you have debilitating issues regarding social anxiety, do seek a professional’s services.
The fear of being judged is a positive aspect of human nature. This instinct holds us in good form within social groups in which we need to belong. The balance between being fearful and being confident is necessary for daily functioning. Just as one can be impeded by exaggerated fear of being judged, there are also disorders in personality (the extreme example is antisocial personality disorder) whereby no sense of fear or conscience is present.
Functional Neuroimaging (fMRI) studies of fear, specific phobia, social anxiety and PTSD are compared in the article by Etkin & Wager (2007) indicates to us how the different kinds of fear- and anxiety-related disorders differ in activation in the brain.
Etkin & Wager, 2007
As therapists we learn to treat each patient’s symptoms as individual. Language to describe fear-type emotions can be limited to a few adjectives. The experiences of different patients are different. fMRI studies show that biologically, these symptoms are also not similar.
The findings mentioned in this paper also accentuates the point that no anti-anxiety drug can remove the symptoms for all fear-based disorders. This often leads the medical professionals to prescribe cocktails of drugs as a measure.
Bibliography
Etkin, A. & Wager, T. D. (2007). Functional neuroimaging of anxiety: a meta-analysis of emotional processing in PTSD, social anxiety disorder, and specific phobia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 164(10), 1476-1488.
