Social anxiety disorder in the context of "Self-medication"

A phobia is an anxiety disorder, defined by an irrational, unrealistic, persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation. Phobias typically result in a rapid onset of fear and are usually present for more than six months. Those affected go to great lengths to avoid the situation or object, to a degree greater than the actual danger posed. If the object or situation cannot be avoided, they experience significant distress. Other symptoms can include fainting, which may occur in blood or injury phobia, and panic attacks, often found in agoraphobia and emetophobia. Around 75% of those with phobias have multiple phobias.

Phobias can be divided into specific phobias, social anxiety disorder, and agoraphobia. Specific phobias are further divided to include certain animals, natural environment, blood or injury, and particular situations. The most common are fear of spiders, fear of snakes, and fear of heights. Specific phobias may be caused by a negative experience with the object or situation in early childhood to early adulthood. Social phobia is when a person fears a situation due to worries about others judging them. Agoraphobia is a fear of a situation due to perceived difficulty or inability to escape.

Mr. Robot is an American psychological techno-thriller television series created by Sam Esmail for USA Network. It stars Rami Malek as Elliot Alderson, a cybersecurity engineer and hacker with social anxiety disorder, clinical depression, and dissociative identity disorder. Elliot is recruited by an insurrectionary anarchist known as "Mr. Robot", played by Christian Slater, to join a group of hacktivists called "fsociety". The group aims to destroy all debt records by encrypting the financial data of E Corp, the largest conglomerate in the world.

The pilot premiered via online and video on demand services on May 27, 2015. In addition to Malek and Slater, the series stars an ensemble cast featuring Carly Chaikin, Portia Doubleday, Martin Wallström, Michael Cristofer, Stephanie Corneliussen, Grace Gummer, BD Wong, Bobby Cannavale, Elliot Villar, and Ashlie Atkinson. The first season debuted on USA Network on June 24, 2015; the second season premiered on July 13, 2016; and the third season premiered on October 11, 2017. The fourth and final season premiered on October 6, 2019, and concluded on December 22, 2019.

Social inhibition is the conscious or subconscious avoidance of a situation or social interaction. With a high level of social inhibition, situations are avoided because of the possibility of others disapproving of their feelings or actions. Related processes that deal with social inhibition are social evaluation concerns, anxiety in social interaction, social avoidance, and withdrawal. Also related are components such as cognitive patterns, anxious apprehension during social interactions, and internalizing problems. It also describes those who suppress anger, restrict social behavior, withdraw in the face of novelty, and have a long latency to interact with strangers.

Individuals can also have a low level of social inhibition, but certain situations may or may not generally cause people to be more or less inhibited. Social inhibition can sometimes be reduced by the short-term use of drugs including alcohol or benzodiazepines. However, this does not solve the root issue and may cause substance dependence. Major signs of social inhibition in children include cessation of play, hesitancy to approach an unfamiliar person, signs of fear and negative affect, and security seeking. In high level cases of social inhibition, other social disorders can emerge through development, such as social anxiety disorder and social phobia.

Shyness (also called diffidence) is the feeling of apprehension, lack of comfort, or awkwardness especially when a person is around other people. This commonly occurs in new situations or with unfamiliar people; a shy person may simply opt to avoid these situations. Although shyness can be a characteristic of people who have low self-esteem, the primary defining characteristic of shyness is a fear of what other people will think of a person's behavior. This fear of negative reactions such as being mocked, humiliated or patronized, criticized or rejected can cause a shy person to retreat. Stronger forms of shyness can be referred to as social anxiety or social phobia.

Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) are a class of drug that inhibit the activity of one or both monoamine oxidase enzymes: monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) and monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B). MAOIs are effective antidepressants due to their specialized function of the inhibition of the enzyme that is responsible for neurotransmitter degradation in the synaptic cleft. This is especially true for treatment-resistant depression, which is a type of depression that is resistant to common treatments of typical depression, such as selective-serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs).

MAOIs are also utilized to treat panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, Parkinson's disease, and several other disorders.