The 6 Symptoms of Social Anxiety that Complicates Borderline Personality Disorder

Please watch: "How You Can Control Your Emotions with Dr. Fox - Affective Regulation"

In this video I discuss the 6 symptoms of social anxiety and how it adds to feelings and behaviors that promote isolation, fear, uncertainty, and paranoia which makes managing BPD symptoms harder. This video will help you gain understanding into aspects of social anxiety to help recognize, manage and control it.

Anxiety disorders have been found to make it harder to experience a remission of borderline personality disorder symptoms over time and they actually increase the risk of suicide and self-injury.

Social Anxiety symptoms are commonly comorbid with BPD. Although these symptoms are common and cause problems, they can be managed. The best technique is to build skills to manage both BPD and the social anxiety using anxiety reduction techniques, emotional regulation skills, and building insight into your triggers and emotional buttons that make it harder to functioning in social settings and around others.

Symptoms of Social Anxiety include:
• Intense fear or anxiety about one or more social situations in which the individual is exposed to possible evaluation by others. Such as social interactions (e.g., having a conversation, meeting unfamiliar people, job interview), being observed (e.g., eating or drinking, working out), and performing in front of others (e.g., giving a speech).
• Fear that you’ll act in a way or show anxiety symptoms that will be negatively evaluated (i.e., will be humiliating or embarrassing: will lead to rejection or offend others).
• Avoid or endure situations with intense fear or anxiety.
• Fear or anxiety is out of proportion to the actual threat posed by the social situation and to the sociocultural context.
• The fear, anxiety, or avoidance is persistent, typically lasting for 6 months or more.
• The fear, anxiety, or avoidance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

Daniel J. Fox, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist in Texas, international speaker, and award winning author. He has been specializing in the treatment and assessment of individuals with personality disorders for over 15 years in the state and federal prison system, universities, and in private practice. His specialty areas include personality disorders, ethics, burnout prevention, and emotional intelligence.

He has published several articles in these areas and is the author of:

Thank you for your attention and I hope you enjoy my videos and find them helpful and subscribe. I always welcome topic suggestions and comments.

Citation:

Harned, M. S., & Valenstein, H. R. (2013). Treatment of borderline personality disorder and co-occurring anxiety disorders. F1000prime reports, 5, 15.

[AnnaBreit]

The ironic thing is social anxiety prohibits me from interacting well with others and yet then I feel abandoned when others don’t engage with me

[neenag]

I'm scared of walking. I always think someone is judging how I walk. How I drive. How I pronounce things. Its a fear of judgment and as a result I'll be rejected. I always think someone is laughing at me. I got laughed at a lot as a child. Sometimes I knew sometimes I didn't know until I was older. It makes me feel like everyone will figure out I'm really a loser to be laughed at.

[amber-twey]

I have been isolating for the past 8 months, unemployed and dropped out of school due to the combination of both bpd and social anxiety. I’m so over dealing with it. But! It finally feels like I’m getting better each day, best of luck to anyone else struggling. 💕one day we will develop a better way of life and live without this overwhelming fear and anxiety.

[battydragon]

It's a never ending circle in my head.
I can be walking through town and it starts

1. Feelings of walking really slowly, chest feels heavy, sinking
Then I try to speed up to stop the sensations.
2.Then the thoughts: everyone else sees me walking fast, I look weird, I look like I'm on drugs or something, I'm acting weird, I look crazy.
3. Try to act normal by scratching head, face.
4. Everyone is watching ...I feel robotic.

Back to number 2 and on goes the ducking circle .

[aarombarefoot]

I am surrounded by kind people that want to spend time with me, but I avoid them because every time I have a conversation, I can't stop talking. When the conversation is over, I overthink everything I said to the person and feel so embarrassed. It gets to the point where I whisper mean things to myself, (such as "I'm a bad person") but I've started following it up with the opposite phrase to try and force those negative feelings about my self out of my mind. It's comforting to know that those feelings are caused by the disorder and not as legitimate as they seem to me. I try to remember that others don't think as far into what I say as I do. Understanding the root of these fears is so helpful. Thanks for another great video, Dr.Fox.

[peacexlove]

My therapist says I think too much about how I interact with people, but there's been times where I've said or done things that I later regret and the humiliation from it makes me feel like I can't be completely open and relaxed with people.

[goldenchildtarot.]

Every time I have conversations with anyone, I’m always unsatisfied with the conversation afterwards and overthink every thing I said. Drive-thrus? Pfttt...not happening. I think I try to read people too much.
It’s so interesting to read how anxiety affects other people differently.

[LaGrossePaulik]

This video was released a year ago, I regularly re-watch it. Honestly I do feel that social anxiety is way more impairing that BPD. Well, at least when I'm not into a BPD 'crisis'... Only from my experience, of course. Social anxiety makes every step difficult, unreachable, whereas BPD makes things and relationships painful. Social anxiety whispers constantly that people are harmful and I'm flawed, and BPD cries because I'd finish all alone and despaired, empty.

[doublelibra]

Now I understand why I'm a loner with BPD.

[daisygirl]

I do appreciate this information. Recently a therapist in my DBT class stated that staying inside all day is an unacceptable way to live. He made me feel guilty about this problem I have and that I should just get outside like it's nothing. But for me I feel safe in my room, there is no fear of being triggered by another and I don't have to worry about having an anger or anxiety attack that pushes me to the edge. This is why I stay secluded, not because I want to but because I have to. I wish it didn't have to be me to teach my psychiatrist and therapists about important BPD information that they should already know. Yet once again I feel compelled to coach the therapists who are caring for me and other BPD patients that this issue with social anxiety is real and it is also a deeply difficult disorder to get through. Condemning this upon us who suffer with BPD goes against helping with the problem. I think what I should do is just forward your videos to them :)

[sofiaraven]

I am diagnosed BPD with several Anxiety disorders including Social Anxiety. Dr Fox has identified an area that requires more attention, especially from our Health professionals. I was incorrectly diagnosed with Schizophrenia 10 years ago by a Psychiatrist who only considered the dissociation symptoms, failing to investigate the history my childhood, relationships or even the aspects of my auditory and visual hallucinations AND belief systems of these hallucinations. I do not understand this world but every now and then a snippet of crucial data is presented to me. Thank you Dr Fox. Having said, Mental Health awareness is better than it was 10 years ago and I have a team of Health Professionals assisting me.

[lucky_lola]

You are so kind and compassionate about this subject, and it's such a breath of fresh air. Thank you for educating people about bpd!

[katg]

It does make it all worse you want to be around people badly, but then get social anxiety that's so bad
. Emotions are so hard to regular

[jennifermaxine]

I am always attracted to partners who have the potential to abandon me. Someone I think I think is better that I idealize, and has more going for them. It's a set up for failure. Self defeating. I have massive social anxiety as well and attract more outgoing friends and partners.

[catienajar]

I didn’t use to have social anxiety when I was younger but I’d say since I turned 19 (I’m 22 now) I’ve suffered from it and I’ve lost nearly all of my friends because of it. I’ve noticed that I avoid people because I think they’ll hurt/leave me, they won’t be as big of a part of my life as I’d like them to be, or I’ll somehow hurt my fp if I make friends with someone else so I just avoid the pain altogether but it’s hard because I do crave connection with other people and I know that I need friends to be truly happy and I hate being by myself all the time

[kenmina-hswb]

This is exactly the cycle that i go through whenever im confronting a situation or a person that threatens to invalidate me or makes me uncomfortable

[MaakaNinja]

This is the only video I've seen that I feel accurately describes what is happening to me. It makes me feel more confident about seeking help for a bpd diagnosis

[twainslureca]

Thank you for normalizing my behavior for me as someone with bpd it’s incredible how much you get “us”

[grasshopperfiddler]

Dear Mr. Fox, Thank you for not cluttering up your videos with distracting music or forced jokes, i really appreciate that you Know your Audiance! I can barely get thru thirty secs of other peoples videos that try too hard to be “entertaining”. I hope i get the chance to meet you someday

[amy]

I have much respect for you and your work. It blows my mind to see professionals, like yourself, helping your patients all day and still finding time to put out valuable videos for us. Thank you so much. It exhausts me just thinking about how you do it. I can't seem to do the smallest daily tasks. BPD & anxiety has taken over my life. I've shut myself off from the world. I've noticed it's getting worse with age. I got off of Facebook and Instagram about 9 months ago ( I don't miss it) quit talking to friends & family, don't leave the house unless I absolutely have to.. I use YouTube for insightful information to help understand myself and learn how to change for the better. I'm thankful I found you here.