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Individuals with social phobia have too much serotonin

sciencedaily.com

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Re: Individuals with social phobia have too much serotonin

#91

Post by dholowiski »

glasz wrote: post #24

social phobia = psychiatric disorder, in case i can't speak in public? do i have to speak in public? i'd be very careful with that kind of judgement. in general, having experience with how "modern medicine" and society in general handle such proclaimed "problems", psychology is a great deal of bullshit. i myself don't like masses of people. i embrace this preference. and i love it. most amassment of people aren't eve…

So, you clearly do not have social phobia. Yes, it is a legitimate disorder, and it can be quite disabling when it's severe.

It's not about not being able to speak in public. Imagine suffering from panic attacks and not being able to leave your house for days, because you're afraid someone will say hi to you. That's social anxiety.

Your attitude "STOP IT. tell them to fit in" is the reason many people with social anxiety, and many other psychiatric disorders end up committing suicide.

Re: Individuals with social phobia have too much serotonin

#92

Post by OldSchoolJohnny »

phkahler wrote: post #48

>> Previous studies have led researchers to believe that individuals with social anxiety disorder or social phobia have too low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin. A new study, however, shows that the situation is exactly the opposite. It's stuff like this that is destroying the reputation of science in general. I know it's one thing to "lead to believe" and another to "show that", and perhaps that's what happe…

Most of those things you mention were not based on any solid science in the first place if you look into them so no conundrum here.

Re: Individuals with social phobia have too much serotonin

#93

Post by ksenzee »

That's very interesting, especially combined with data showing that SSRIs in fact decrease brain serotonin over the long term [1]. We truly do not understand the mechanism of action for these drugs.

[1] https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mad-in-america/201011/n...

Re: Individuals with social phobia have too much serotonin

#94

Post by testingonprod »

justacat wrote: post #90
heroku wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started exercising and it gave me a huge confidence boost that further lead to being attracted by girls. After a year though I got used to lifting weights and I wasn't progressing as I wanted to be so that didn't help. But I am sure if you get shredded you will be cured.

Dude…getting shredded has always been the cure.

It's the natural cure

Re: Individuals with social phobia have too much serotonin

#95

Post by eivarv »

ksenzee wrote: post #93

That's very interesting, especially combined with data showing that SSRIs in fact decrease brain serotonin over the long term [1]. We truly do not understand the mechanism of action for these drugs. [1] https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mad-in-america/201011/n...

Isn't it more that we don't understand why it works (i.e. what kind of connection serotonin has with these mental illnesses) rather than the mechanism of action itself, which is believed to be serotonin staying longer in the synaptic cleft by way of inhibiting reuptake, leading to repeated stimulation of the post-synaptic receptors?

I was under the impression that SSRI's were specifically designed to target the serotonin system.

Re: Individuals with social phobia have too much serotonin

#96

Post by raelshark »

sramsay wrote: post #59
glasz wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

thanks. crazy situation. don't get me wrong, i'm just naive, but would using headphones (listening to music), not looking at people and closing the eyes in the elevator work?

An actual panic attack is completely and totally devastating. The entire fight/flight system goes haywire, and people think they're about to die. It's even possible to start hallucinating. Lots of sufferers wind up in the ER absolutely convinced they're having a heart attack. What's worse, this can lead to a whole range of phobias (I'm in the middle of this theater. What if I have an attack? Then you start having one…

I think it's people usually don't get that these are often just random and not always tied to an event, but vice-versa. Certain situations and interactions can lead up to or trigger attacks, but when it's a real disorder with the fight or flight mechanism, there's often no rational meaning to the sense of panic.

In my case my attacks turned out to be related to a disorder of the autonomic nervous system, which (among lots of other things) results in my response system overreacting to stimuli. It took me a long time to get diagnosed and I've learned to cope by rationalizing my panicky feelings as nothing more than flawed biology. I know that there's nothing really wrong, and I can calm myself down, telling myself it's just my screwed up vagus nerve, before an attack becomes full-blown. Thanks to that I was eventually able to taper off taking Xanax regularly.

But while going through that process I had days where I couldn't even work, and even had a boss drive me to an urgent care place once in a full-blown attack. The work at the time was definitely stressful, but I think the panic attacks exacerbated the work more than the other way around.

Re: Individuals with social phobia have too much serotonin

#97

Post by derwildemomo »

tvm wrote: post #35
glasz wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

honest question: is that phobia a real problem for you? or did somebody tell you it is?

Honest answer: Yes a serious problem. Two years ago I've had panic attack in the elevator and I was just technically unable to go into office where I worked (I've had a good job and I was content there). Doing ordinary things like groceries, etc. was terribly hard. Went through brain CT, EMG and some other tests and after some months psychiatrist gave me F40.2 (social phobia) stamp. Went through various medications t…

thanks for sharing this. Since i'm in a somewhat comparable situation, would you mind getting in touch? you can find my website, alas email, on my profile page and I think talking about some stuff that worked and didn't work might help me. Thank you.

Re: Individuals with social phobia have too much serotonin

#98

Post by stephendedalus »

tvm wrote: post #65
sramsay wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An actual panic attack is completely and totally devastating. The entire fight/flight system goes haywire, and people think they're about to die. It's even possible to start hallucinating. Lots of sufferers wind up in the ER absolutely convinced they're having a heart attack. What's worse, this can lead to a whole range of phobias (I'm in the middle of this theater. What if I have an attack? Then you start having one…

Yes, the main deal is that the fight/flight system gets triggered too often, even in inappropriate situations. The result is devastating.

I feel for you so much. I've gone through this for the last 14 years. On and off. Mostly off since I've been on medication, but it's debilitating. When you don't go places or do things because you're afraid of simply being there for a panic attack. Always sitting on aisles (when you finally get to the point where you can go to a movie) so you have an easy escape.

And yeah, often you don't look at people, wear headphones or do other things like that. That's when you're doing "well" and not having panic attacks. When you've learned how to manage it.

Re: Individuals with social phobia have too much serotonin

#99

Post by Natsu »

platz wrote: post #63
jgroszko wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of the harm comes from people treating science as some sort of monolithic entity. Science says X! Science says Y! When really it's more like some scientists over here have found some evidence for X, some over here did some work that points to Y. It's neat that mainstream enthusiasm for science has grown so much in the last few years, but it seems like a lot of times this kind of treatment oversimplifies…

Don't forget the Science community itself is always shouting "Trust us, we're impartial scientists, don't ignore us!". Some scientists over here have found some evidence for X, and the media that cover their story, REALLY want you to believe their story. You can't treat the Science community as impartial here.

It's a pretty simple fact that the more people who strongly trust a signal, the more value there is in mimicry of it. Because birds understand that Monarchs are poisonous, there's great value to the Viceroy in being a good mimic of it.

So the more strongly people trust science, the more value there will be to con men in passing themselves off as scientists. We can mitigate that to some extent with scientific reputation and whatnot, but I don't think we have trust fully figured out in general, as there's always the bootstrapping problem.

Re: Individuals with social phobia have too much serotonin

#100

Post by eivarv »

jgroszko wrote: post #60
phkahler wrote: post #48

>> Previous studies have led researchers to believe that individuals with social anxiety disorder or social phobia have too low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin. A new study, however, shows that the situation is exactly the opposite. It's stuff like this that is destroying the reputation of science in general. I know it's one thing to "lead to believe" and another to "show that", and perhaps that's what happe…

I think a lot of the harm comes from people treating science as some sort of monolithic entity. Science says X! Science says Y! When really it's more like some scientists over here have found some evidence for X, some over here did some work that points to Y. It's neat that mainstream enthusiasm for science has grown so much in the last few years, but it seems like a lot of times this kind of treatment oversimplifies…

While mainstream enthusiasm for science has grown, scientific literacy and journalism, unfortunately, hasn't.
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