MONDAY, Dec. 15, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- People with social anxiety disorder may use alcohol to help them cope with social situations and may actually avoid social encounters where there is no alcohol available.
That conclusion comes from a study in the December issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
People with social anxiety disorder aren't merely shy. They are extremely uncomfortable with the thought of being scrutinized and fear looking foolish to others.
"Social anxiety disorder can keep people from enjoying social events and often interferes with their jobs, especially when they are required to speak to a group as part of their work," study author Suzanne E. Thomas, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina, says in a prepared statement.
"Besides avoiding situations where they might be evaluated, many individuals with social anxiety disorder (also) use alcohol to cope," Thomas adds.
The average lifetime prevalence of alcoholism among people with social anxiety disorder is 20 percent, compared with 10 percent in the general population. That means that one in five people with social anxiety disorder develops alcoholism at some point.
This study included 46 people -- 23 with high social anxiety and 23 control subjects who weren't socially anxious. They were all asked about their use of alcohol as a coping mechanism, whether they avoided social situations where there was no alcohol, and the degree of relief they experienced by drinking alcohol in social settings.
"We found that drinking to relieve social discomfort was a common practice in both groups, but that individuals with high levels of social anxiety use alcohol for this purpose more often, and they would drink both in anticipation of and during social situations," Thomas says.
"Also, more individuals with high social anxiety avoid social situations if alcohol is not available. Lastly, they experience greater relief from anxiety in social situations than do individuals who are not anxious," she says.
More information
Here's where you can learn more about anxiety disorders.
