Social Anxiety Disorder

Social anxiety disorder, also known as social phobia, is a mental health condition characterized by intense, persistent fear of being watched, judged or negatively evaluated by others in social or performance situations, leading affected individuals to avoid such situations or endure them with significant distress. Common triggers include public speaking, eating in front of others, and initiating conversations, and the disorder often begins in adolescence. It was described as a distinct clinical syndrome by French psychiatrists in the late nineteenth century, though it was not formally recognized as its own diagnostic category in the DSM until 1980.