Anxiety and Social Anxiety
Today I wanted to touch on the topic of anxiety. A couple months back there was a story that came out that involved the R&B artist Summer Walker. It came out that when she performs there isn’t the same level of engagement or enthusiasm when other people perform. Also that she had a meet and greet and it was sub-par in the eyes of some fans. Soon after, Summer Walker shared with the world that she has social anxiety and subsequently cancelled her tour. This prompted some individuals to share that she used to be a stripper in the past and that doesn’t coincide with the social anxiety that she states that she has. This story was one of the reasons that I wanted to start this blog.
If this is the first post of mine that you are reading then you should know that I have a bachelor’s in psychology and I’m currently working to get my master’s in social work in the hopes to continue on to become a clinical social worker. Throughout my studies I’ve learned about various mental disorders and anxiety is one of them. According to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), anxiety is defined as the anticipation of a future threat. Social anxiety is defined as when the individual is fearful or anxious about or avoidant of social interactions and situations that involve the possibility of being scrutinized. There is a whole list of criteria that is needed to be diagnosed with anxiety by a psychiatrist and that is not the focus of this posting.
In the situation of Summer Walker people equate her stripping to bring about the same amount of social pressure that would come from performing and meeting and greeting fans. There are some things that we aren’t considering. A person can be very comfortable doing one thing and highly uncomfortable doing something else. I’ll bring up a story from my childhood. When I was in high school I played the double bass for 4 years. Think of cello but bigger. If you were good enough you would be placed as part of the traveling orchestra, and I was. Any time I played in other schools or for graduations I would wear sunglasses as if I were Ray Charles and do the similar head movements as I seen in the Jamie Foxx rendition (corny I know). If you seen me perform you would think I was a sociable person yet that couldn’t be further from the truth. I’ve always been a shy person but I was comfortable enough in my musical capabilities to have some fun with it in public. The same could be said for Summer Walker and her days as a stripper. She could have enough confidence enough in her stripping than performing a song in front of a crowd of people.
Social Anxiety isn’t as simple as whatever you’ve read on Wikipedia. Depending on the person it can be a very debilitating disorder that could render a person to tears from the very thought of the trigger. Imagine a time when you weren’t comfortable doing something yet someone tried to force you or tried to minimize your feelings. This is the same. Anxiety, depending on the individual, is something they deal with on a daily basis and it shouldn’t be taken lightly. I haven’t been diagnosed but I may have a form of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). If you know me then you know I tend to overthink things and in my head it feels like things are running at a mile a minute. For me it’s not necessarily worry shows in my thinking of every single possibility of every action that I take that sometimes I don’t understand how I’m able to do anything at all. But I share this to say that we don’t know certain things about someone until they share it and then the worst thing you could do is to minimize their feelings.