Does anyone not have these symptoms? I am just wondering if it might be related to sz or something. The only one I dont get is panic attacks. I know all you guys say your personal problems are similar to myne, but I think I have moved on a lot and could probably put my problems down to this and stress.
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I think my problems started out as social anxiety. At least I always have had it since I can remember.
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My biggest fear would be to be on TV, and I think that is something that might sound a bit absurd to some people.
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No I understand! Mine is public speaking
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I think I have social anxiety, I use to drink to cope with people in public now I have sc and on meds because I hear voices, I still struggle with being in groups of people, ok one on one
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I have social anxiety and it can be quite severe. I am having problems at the moment and had to take time off work
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I think I can finally say I dont have sz. It feels good, like I can leave it behind.
@Moon - because, this is what my symptoms come down to now. I thought being quiet was my last negative symptom, but it is just part of social anxiety disorder. It explains my symptoms way more than sz. I feel like I can put those problems behind me now, because they’re gone.
Thinking about leaving the forum 
comorbidity of schizophrenia and social phobia – impact on quality of life, hope, and personality traits: a cross sectional study
Objective: The purpose of the study was to explore whether the comorbidity of social phobia affects symptoms severity, positive and negative symptoms, self-stigma, hope, and quality of life in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.Methods: This is a cross-sectional study in which all participants completed the Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness (ISMI) scale, Adult Dispositional Hope Scale (ADHS), Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire (Q-LES-Q), Temperament and Character Inventory – Revised (TCI-R), and the demographic questionnaire. The disorder severity was assessed both by a psychiatrist (Clinical Global Impression Severity – the objective version [objCGI-S] scale) and by the patients (Clinical Global Impression Severity – the subjective version [subjCGI-S] scale). The patients were in a stabilized state that did not require changes in the treatment. Diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or delusional disorder was determined according to the International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD-10) research criteria. A structured interview by Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview was used to confirm the diagnosis.Results: The study included 61 patients of both genders. Clinically, the patients with comorbid social phobia had the earlier onset of the illness, more severe current psychopathology, more intense anxiety (general and social), and higher severity of depressive symptoms. The patients with comorbid social phobia showed the significantly lower quality of life compared to the patients without this comorbidity. The patients with comorbid social phobia also had a statis-tically lower mean level of hope and experienced a higher rate of the self-stigma. They also exhibited higher average scores of personality trait harm avoidance (HA) and a lower score of personality trait self-directedness (SD).Conclusion: The study demonstrated differences in demographic factors, the severity of the disorder, self-stigma, hope, HA, and SD between patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders with and without comorbid social phobia.Keywords: schizophrenia, social phobia, onset, hospitalizations, quality of life, self-stigma, hope, personality traits
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I dont think you understand though, I dont have any sz symptoms at the moment. All that says to me is a lot of peple with sz have an underlying problem of social anxiety.
Whether you are free of sz symptoms at the moment , doesn’t mean you never had such symptoms .
It’s very possible that you have had sz symptoms with social anxiety symptoms.
I hope you will continue to take your meds , and not rush into a foolhardy decision to abruptly stop taking them .
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No, I am not saying I didn’t have sz, I know I had sz, but I got better and the symptoms that gave me sz were social anxiety disorder.
It is completely normal to have social anxiety when you have SZ. It is not diagnosed as social anxiety if SZ explains it better.
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I don’t have any sz symptoms anymore though.
Social withdrawal is a SZ symptom, and social withdrawal can cause social anxiety. Social anxiety can not cause psychosis, but I guess it could be a trigger.
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I think my condition is better described as social anxiety than social withdrawal.
It sounds like it could be comorbid social anxiety disorder, then.
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You can go symptom free from schizophrenia and still have it though. For a lot of people it comes in waves
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I’m not sure I think looking back I had it before sz, things like blaming it on myself, marijuana abuse, low self esteem and leaving college led to sz. I know you think sz is something neurological but I never took that approach. I always saw it as a failure to admit things under stress, otherwise you would never get better.
I think it’s biologically based but with widespread psychological consequences that are treatable with therapy. I don’t think you can get SZ without a strong genetic (or epigenetic) predisposition.
Also, that sounds like it could be the prodromal period.
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