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Social anxiety and education.

I'm intrigued to know what other peoples experiences with social anxiety have been throughout school/college/university and have you received any support for it?

I've always been labeled as "shy", "painfully shy" and "quiet" for my whole school life. I never made friends easily, and rarely answered stuff in class. I don't think schools take social anxiety seriously enough unless you shout about it which then counteracts the whole thing.

My university doesn't even count social anxiety as a mental illness which I think is awful.
Original post by Anonymous
I'm intrigued to know what other peoples experiences with social anxiety have been throughout school/college/university and have you received any support for it?

I've always been labeled as "shy", "painfully shy" and "quiet" for my whole school life. I never made friends easily, and rarely answered stuff in class. I don't think schools take social anxiety seriously enough unless you shout about it which then counteracts the whole thing.

My university doesn't even count social anxiety as a mental illness which I think is awful.


Sadly, many people do not take issues like these seriously in this day and age. I myself prefer to be at home making my own amusement rather than going out with friends (partly because of my social anxiety but mostly my introverted demeanour). This was not realised by my parents who thought I was "weird" as well as by many other adults who don't seem to realise the issues young people face these days. I think the lack of support mainly stems from the media always portraying overconfidence as a "good" quality to have.
I've been really blessed as my Sixth Form have been really understanding! They let me start later/finish earlier if I have study periods so I'm not in the study room (a major panic place for me), they informed my teachers so my teachers know to check on me privately/ask if i need any help because they now know I won't go up and ask and they're setting me up with a mediator to try and come up with some coping mechanisms.
I feel incredibly lucky that my Sixth Form have been like this and it's sad that so many schools aren't.
Reply 3
Your university certainly should count it as a mental illness. What have they said about it? Are they able to offer you any university support with it?

I've had severe social anxiety for a long time (same as you with school and being described as shy/quiet/etc!), but both undergrad and postgrad uni have been very good with me. Undergraduate uni basically let me get away with not attending anything (since lectures were not 'officially' recorded on attendance) and let me have extenuating circumstances for a presentation that I was unable to do. My current (postgrad) uni have been excellent - although I am not 'officially' diagnosed with social anxiety (for some reason it has always been worked on 'unofficially' in therapy) they have recorded me as having severe social anxiety on their SARA forms (statement of reasonable adjustments) which means that they can apply mitigating circumstances if my social anxiety has an effect on the quality of my work, ability to meet deadlines etc.

Tutors have also been great - at my current uni my first lecturer (and now diss supervisor) had a chat with me within the first couple of weeks about how I'd cope with presentations (I was only given the SARA back in February but it was pretty obvious anyway!); he helped me to communicate my thoughts by suggesting that I e-mail him before sessions with my thoughts on the readings and he'd bring them into the sessions for me, then building from that to trying to say a couple of words out loud if possible (wasnt a great success, but there we go...!) So yes, I have been lucky, had some very supportive people at uni.
my school was helpful and supportive however I suppose you could say I 'shouted' about it... I refused to go lessons or walked out in order to avoid uncomfortable situations, had a lot of panic attacks etc

my school was fantastic in terms of setting plans in place, giving support and so on, my college and university as well even though I wasn't struggling with as severe symptoms then
I have social anxiety. I don't suffer to the extent I used to (thank goodness!)
I never really told my school, and when I told some teachers they dismissed it as me trying to get attention.
Most of my ticks were in out of school environments hence my school life hardly being an issue. eg. Getting the bus, walking in the park or buying things in shops.
The only ticks I had at school were being late for assemblies or for classes, joining lunch queues and forgetting to complete homework. At the time I just dealt with it by 1. Being ridiculously punctual for everything 2. Not having lunch 3. Making myself stressed and depressed when I was nearing a deadline i hadnt completed. This wasn't exactly affecting my school work but my general health, meaning my school never got involved.


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