• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

FHE Health | Inpatient Rehab & Mental Health Facility in Florida Homepage

Drug, Alcohol and Mental Health Treatment

ContactCareers

Call for Immediate Help (833) 596-3502

MENUMENU
  • About
        • About FHE Rehab
          • About FHE Health
          • Our Staff
          • Locations We Serve
          • Testimonials
        • Our Campus
          • Gallery
          • Our Videos
          • The Health and Wellness Center at FHE Health
        • Our Locations
          • Alcohol Rehab
          • Detox Center
          • Drug Rehab
          • Mental Health Center
          • Outpatient Rehab
        • Careers at FHE Health
          • Employment Opportunities
        • Our Expertise
          • Accreditations
          • Educational Opportunities
          • Community Impact Award
          • First Responder Families Podcast
          • First Responder Paws
          • Education Scholarship
  • Addiction
        • Treatment Programs
          • Treatment Program Overview
          • Alcohol Addiction
          • Drug Addiction Treatment
          • Behavioral Addiction
        • Levels of Care
          • Continuum of Care
          • Addiction Detox
          • Inpatient Addiction Treatment
          • Outpatient Addiction Treatment
        • What We Treat
          • Alcoholism
          • Amphetamines
          • Benzodiazepines
          • Cocaine
          • Heroin
          • Opioids
          • Sedative
  • Mental Health
        • Mental Health Rehab
          • Mental Health Rehab
          • Onsite Psychiatric Care
          • Dual Diagnosis
        • Levels of Care
          • Residential Mental Health Care
          • Outpatient Mental Health Care
        • What We Treat
          • ADD & ADHD
          • Anxiety Disorders
          • Bipolar Disorder
          • Depression
          • Eating Disorders
          • Personality Disorders
          • PTSD
          • Schizophrenia
          • Substance Use Disorder
          • Trauma
  • Programs
        • FHE Programs
          • Specialty Program Overview
          • Restore (Mental Health)
          • Empower! (Women's Program)
          • Shatterproof FHE Health(First Responders)
          • Compass Program
        • Support Programs
          • Alumni
          • Family Support
        • Therapies
          • Acupuncture
          • Breathwork Therapy
          • CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy)
          • DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy)
          • EMDR Therapy
          • Expressive Arts Therapy
          • Individual Therapy
          • Group Therapy
          • Gambling Therapy
          • Massage
        • Medical Care
          • Medical Integration
          • Ketamine Infusion
          • IV Vitamin
          • Fitness & Nutrition
          • Medication-Assisted Treatment
          • Medication Management
        • NeuroRehab Services
          • Neuro Rehabilitation
          • Neurofeedback Training
          • Neurostimulation Therapy
          • EEG Brain Mapping
          • Insomnia Treatment for PTSD
  • Resources
        • FHE Guides
          • Understanding Drug Abuse
          • Signs of Addiction
          • The Disease of Addiction
          • Confronting Addiction
          • Staging an Intervention
          • Rehab Success Rate – Does It Really Work?
          • Withdrawal Timelines
          • Life After Rehab
          • LGBTQ+ Community Resources
          • Veteran Resources
          • FHE Podcasts
          • Remote Resources Toolkit
        • Learning Center
          • Help for You
          • Help For Loved Ones
          • Help For Alcoholism
          • Help With Substance Abuse
          • Behavioral & Mental Health
          • Life in Recovery
          • Rehab Explained
          • Addiction Statistics
          • Our Research Articles
          • View All Articles
        • The Experience Blog
          • Addiction News
          • Alumni
          • Community Events
          • Expert Opinions
          • FHE Commentary
          • FHE News
          • Treatment Legislation
          • View All Articles
  • Admissions
        • Insurance
          • Blue Cross Insurance
          • Beacon Health / Value Options Insurance
          • Cigna Insurance
          • Humana Insurance
          • TRICARE Insurance
        • Admissions
          • Steps to Addiction Help
          • Will Insurance Cover Behavioral Treatment?
          • Self-Pay Rehab
        • FAQ
          • Keeping Your Job in Rehab
          • Example Day in Rehab
        • Contact Admissions
          • Contact Us
          • Secure Payment Form
  • Contact
  •  
Home > Experience Blog > Alumni > Alumni Outlook: The Difference Between Anxiety and Social Anxiety

April 20, 2023 By Chris Foy

Alumni Outlook: The Difference Between Anxiety and Social Anxiety

Social Anxiety vs Anxiety - Alumni Outlook

What is Anxiety?

The definition of the word anxiety is as follows: “a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.” If we go simply off of that definition alone, many of us have probably had many moments where we felt some anxiety. Life is full of big moments that can cause some worry. I remember the nervousness I felt when I interviewed for a recent scholarship to go back to school. I love to speak in front of a crowd but I still get butterflies in my tummy right before I go on stage. Being nervous can be a good thing. It let us know something big or something important is going on.

What is Generalized Anxiety?

But what about when it starts to be bigger than the occasional moment? What happens when it starts to dictate your life? What about when it becomes a constant factor of every thinking, when it causes avoidance of everyday things? That is when we start to cross the line into Generalized Anxiety Disorder. And when that anxiety is applied to social situations we have Social Anxiety Disorder. What do they even feel like?

The Nations Institute of Mental Health lists some of the symptoms as irritability, an inability to focus, feeling wound up, and stomach aches. It can definitely be a debilitating experience.

I’ve heard anxiety being described as a twist in the gut, a tightness in the chest, a shortness of breath, and constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. It’s a constant feeling that just doesn’t go away. It can create a constant need to try and circumvent or avoid the triggers of anxiety. It’s a constant companion to the challenges of day to day existence.

What is Social Anxiety?

What about Social Anxiety? Don’t all people get nervous when it comes to social situations? The answer is no. I am actually one of those people that doesn’t experience social anxiety. I am an extrovert through and through. However, I am married to someone who battles social anxiety on a daily and intense level. So I asked them to describe it to me. They sent me the lyrics to a song.

The lyrics go:  “His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy

There’s vomit on his sweater already, mom’s spaghetti

He’s nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready to drop bombs

But he keeps on forgetting what he wrote down, the whole crowd goes so loud

He opens his mouth, but the words won’t come out

He’s choking how, everybody’s joking now

The clock’s run out, time’s up, over, blaow!”

If you guessed the song “Lose Yourself” by Eminem, you guessed correctly. I asked my spouse why they sent me that song and they said “It’s how I feel whenever I have to leave the house or interact with people.” Then it made sense to me.

The National Institute of Mental Health states that social anxiety disorder is “an intense, persistent fear of being watched and judged by others. For people with social anxiety disorder, the fear of social situations may feel so intense that it seems beyond their control. For some people, this fear may get in the way of going to work, attending school, or doing everyday things.”

Some of the symptoms for Social Anxiety Disorder overlap with Generalized Anxiety Disorder but the main difference is setting. While GAD occurs with all the day to day things, Social Anxiety Disorder occurs with social events or interacting with people.

How Does This Play Out?

So how would these types of anxiety disorders play out in real life? I’d like to introduce you to Billy and Joe. Billy has Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Joe has Social Anxiety Disorder. They both put in the required work and time into their presentation and they both know the content very well. The day arrives for their presentations and they both have stomach aches and fatigue so they call out sick. However, the underlying reason for calling out sick is different. Billy is worried that they didn’t put in enough work into their presentation, or that they got something wrong. Joe is worried that their office mates won’t like the sound of their voice, or that their hairline has receded since the last presentation.

They both have anxiety, they both avoided the meeting, but their reasons were different.

A Few Tools

Fortunately, there are some tools to help reduce symptoms of anxiety. Some of those tools are medications, therapy, and mindfulness. What works best for everyone varies but studies have shown that the best results are a combination of all three tools.

Remember, you aren’t alone in this journey. Several famous people are on this journey with you. That list includes people like Oprah Winfrey, Stephen Colbert, Adele, and many, many others. With the right tools, there is hope. You are worth it!

Filed Under: Alumni, Featured in Alumni

More Questions about Treatment?

More Questions about Treatment?

We offer 100% confidential and individualized treatment

Contact Us

About Chris Foy

Chris Foy is a content manager and webmaster for FHE Health with years of experience in the addiction treatment industry...read more

Primary Sidebar

The Experience Blog

  • Addiction News
  • Alumni
  • Community Events
  • Expert Columns
  • FHE Commentary
  • FHE News
  • Treatment Legislation
  • All Articles

Sign up for the Blog

Our Facilities

Take a look at our state of the art treatment center.

View Our Gallery

Learning Center

  • Help for You
  • Help For Loved Ones
  • Help For Alcoholism
  • Help With Substance Abuse
  • Behavioral & Mental Health
  • Life in Recovery
  • Rehab Explained
  • All Articles
Contact Us
  • Call Now:
  • Best Time to Call:

Footer

FHE Health

© 2025 FHE Health

505 S Federal Hwy #2,
Deerfield Beach, Florida 33441
1-833-596-3502
youtube facebook instagram linkedin twitter
  • Contact
  • Careers
  • AI Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap
A+ BBB and Top Places to Work - Sun Sentinel

Copyright © 2025 · FHE Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}

The FHE Health team is committed to providing accurate information that adheres to the highest standards of writing. If one of our articles is marked with a ‘reviewed for accuracy and expertise’ badge, it indicates that one or more members of our team of doctors and clinicians have reviewed the article further to ensure accuracy. This is part of our ongoing commitment to ensure FHE Health is trusted as a leader in mental health and addiction care.

If there are any concerns about content we have published, please reach out to us at marketing@fhehealth.com.

833-596-3502

Text/Call Me