Posts tagged with "Social anxiety"

Above, 90% of parents believe that their child would like to make new friends. (Image source: C.S. Mott Children's Hospital)

Three in four parents have taken steps to help their child make new friends, national poll finds

Seeptember 16, 2024

Developing friendships is often seen as a natural part of childhood but it may be easier for some kids than others. And many parents worry about their children’s friendships, according to the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health—with one in five saying that their child between the ages of six and 12 has no friends or not enough friends.

Indeed, the researchers have found, fully 90% of parents believe their child would like to make new friends, reports EurekAlert.

“Friendships can play a significant role in children’s overall health and development, emotional well-being, self-esteem, and social skills,” says Mott Poll co-director Sarah Clark, M.P.H., noting. “But some parents say their children face barriers in making friends, such as personality, social anxiety, medical conditions, or just not having as many opportunities.”

Over 50% of parents report at least one factor that makes it difficult for their child to make new friends, with about one in five saying that shyness or being socially awkward got in the way of their child’s efforts to make new friends.

Another 15% of parents say friendship challenges stemmed from kids being mean, while fewer than 10% said a child’s disability or medical condition made friendships more challenging.

Parents of older children were more likely than parents of younger children to say that difficulties making new friends are related to other kids already having friend groups or having too few places to get together.

The nationally representative report is based on responses from 1,031 parents of children 6-12 years old surveyed in August 2024.

Helping children navigate friendships

Three in four parents have taken steps to help their child make new friends.

The most common strategies include arranging play dates or outings, enrolling their child in activities to meet kids with similar interests, or giving their child advice on how to make friends. About 25% of parents try to befriend other parents who have kids the same age.

“Supporting children in making friends is a balance of guidance, encouragement, and giving them space to navigate social situations independently,” Clark said.

“Parents’ involvement may vary based on a child’s age, personality, and social needs.”

Children who struggle making new friends because of shyness, medical conditions, or social anxiety, for example, may need to be gently eased into friend-making. Parents can help by choosing a small-group activity the child enjoys, Clark suggests, and allowing space for the child to become comfortable interacting with peers.

“For some children, making new friends can be stressful,” Clark said. “Remember that children are still developing and practicing their social skills while making and maintaining friendships.

“Parents should expect and allow children to make mistakes—intervening only in matters of safety. Later, in a private moment with the child, parents should be ready to listen and offer advice.”

Parents of older children are also more likely to allow children to use social media connect with friends—including 25% of parents of middle school-aged children—and buy items to help them “fit in.”

Clark cautions parents to be mindful of how their kids are using social media, which has been shown to increase the risk of developing mental health concerns such as anxiety and depression because of opportunities for negative peer influences.

“Parents who choose to allow social media should help their child learn to use it responsibly,” she said.

Parents want friends’ families to be like them

Over half of parents feel it’s very important that they know the parents of their child’s friends, while more than 25%  are very concerned about their child’s friends encouraging their child to do things parents don’t approve of.

But one of the most surprising findings from the poll, Clark says, was that two in three parents said it was important that their child’s friends come from families that were like theirs. Most commonly, this involved similar parenting styles.

More than 33% of parents also indicated a preference for their child’s friends to come from families with a certain political or religious affiliation. Fewer said it was important that friends’ families had similar levels of education or income.

Clark cautions that keeping children’s friendships exclusive to certain circles may prevent them from developing broader perspectives, open mindedness and better social skills.

“School is often viewed as a place where children will encounter and form connections with peers with different backgrounds, ideas, customs, and ways of thinking,” Clark says. “Limiting a child’s friends to only those from similar backgrounds may hamper their ability and comfort in navigating diverse networks in the future.”

Research contact: @EurekAlert

Above, Pitt admitted that the condition worries him, as people may perceive him in a negative way. (Photo source: Economic Times)

Brad Pitt believes he has rare disorder that causes ‘face blindness’: ‘Nobody believes me’

July 7, 2022

A-list actor Brad Pitt believes he has a rare neurological disorder that makes it difficult for him to recognize faces, reports International Business Times.

In an interview last month with GQ magazine, the actor said he has a hard time identifying people and worries he might have the disorder, prosopagnosia.

Pitt says his condition has led people to see him as “aloof, inaccessible,” and “self-absorbed.” He also told writer Ottessa Moshfegh that nobody believes him when he tells other people about his situation.

“Nobody believes me! I wanna meet another,” he told Moshfegh, who told him her husband thinks he shares the same condition as him.

This is not the first time the Oscar winner has talked about his prosopagnosia. Back in 2013, he said in an interview with Esquire that many people hate him because they think he’s disrespecting them, when in fact he simply doesn’t recognize them.

“Every now and then, someone will give me context, and I’ll say, ‘Thank you for helping me.’ But I piss more people off,” he said at the time.

“You get this thing, like, ‘You’re being egotistical. You’re being conceited.’ But it’s a mystery to me, man,” he said. “I can’t grasp a face, and yet I come from such a design/aesthetic point of view. I am going to get it tested.”

Prosopagnosia is a rare birth defect that can be a life-long issue, if not managed properly. Sufferers of this condition have to deal with “face blindness” and use other strategies to help them recognize people, such as observing the way they talk or walk, the way they dress, or their hairstyle and color.

It is normal for people with prosopagnosia to suffer from social anxiety because they are constantly worried they may not recognize the people they know.

Some people who suffer brain damage due to stroke or severe head injury develop this condition—impacting the way they recognize even their friends and families.

There is no known treatment or cure for prosopagnosia, but doctors recommend ways to help patients recognize people, such as cues.

Research contact: @IBTimes

Photo source: sullenriotphotography on Instagram

Do you have an addictive personality, or just a healthy enthusiasm?

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February 24, 2020

Some people cannot stop tweeting; others stream endless episodes of a favorite TV series, drink gallons of coffee each week; bet on competitive sports;  cover themselves with tattoos, jockey for position on video games, or visit tanning salons. While they may not be taking opioids, they still might be “addicted.”

But is there such a thing as an addictive personality? The informal answer is yes, according to the American Addiction Centers—one of the largest networks of rehab facilities nationwide.

Indeed, the rehabilitation experts describe “addictive personality” as an informal term that links particular personality traits to a higher risk of addiction or other problematic behaviors—such as drug abuse, cigarette smoking, gambling, or even constant social media use—according to a report by MindyBodyGreen 

“The term is used colloquially to refer to people who have tendencies that appear to lead to addiction-like behaviors,” says George Koob, Ph.D., director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).

“Addictive personality” is a term often used in association with alcoholism, but you can also feel addicted to other things, like certain activities, people, foods, or physical objects. According to J. Wesley Boyd, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School’s Center for Bioethics, behaviors like gambling, frequent social media use, or even video gaming can also be addictive.

“For people who are addicted to these behaviors—and even those who just derive intense enjoyment from them—engaging in these behaviors can result in the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that is the final common pathway of basically every drug of abuse,” Dr. Boyd told MindyBodyGreen.

He also notes that you can even be addicted to another person in a dating relationship because of this neurochemical response. That said, an unhealthy addiction is very different from healthy enthusiasm.

“Being addicted to something means it has taken over your life and that you are sacrificing important things in your life in service of the addiction,” says Boyd. Koob describes addiction similarly as “being stuck in a cycle in which a person binges on a substance, feels discomfort when the substance wears off, and is preoccupied with procuring and using the substance again.” (And again, this doesn’t apply only to physical substances—it can also be behaviors or experiences.)

On the flip side, “enthusiasm means that you might love something and even that you might look forward to it much of the time, but you are not and will not compromise basic important elements in your life,” Boyd says. 

Some experts believe that the term “addicted” is used too loosely to explain behaviors that are closer to enthusiasm, so Boyd uses exercise as an example of this distinction: An enthusiastic exerciser will look forward to workouts but probably won’t work out when they’re sick, he says. An exercise “addict,” on the other hand, might continue exercising even when they have the flu, despite adverse outcomes. 

“There are definitely individuals who are prone to become addicted in various ways,” Boyd says, noting that addiction is often a combination of both genetics and the environment. “Some of this is based on personal history, but much of it is determined by having a family history of addiction.”

According to MindBodyGreen, people who are at a higher-than-average risk for addiction may have some of the following markers:

  • A close family member with an addiction. Boyd says individuals born to parents who have an addiction are more likely to become addicted themselves, and lots of research backs this up. Overall, it appears that genetic heritability affects addiction by between 40% and 70%—but Koob is careful to note that this genetic component comes from many different pathways, and the likelihood of developing an addiction is due to both the environment and your genetics.
  • An OCD diagnosis. Several other disorders, including obsessive-compulsive disorder, are more likely to co-occur with addiction.
  • Impulsive tendencies and trouble self-regulating. A study about video game addiction found that impulsive people might be more prone to developing an addiction.
  • Low self-esteem. For certain people, low self-esteem also appears to be associated with a higher risk for developing an addiction, according to the study about video gamers.
  • ADHD. A sibling study conducted in 1997 found certain people with ADHD may be more likely to develop substance use disorders, and more recent studies have found that ADHD and substance use disorders tend to co-occur in the same patients.
  • Social anxiety. People who feel lonely and anxious during social events are more likely to develop problematic internet use tendencies, according to a 2007 study. This may be because scrolling the internet can feel soothing in the moment, which helps to reduce overall feelings of anxiety or discomfort.
  • A traumatic history. Koob says people who have a history of abuse or trauma may be more likely to initiate substance abuse in order to reduce their discomfort.

Again, Koob is careful to note, “While there are tendencies that increase the risk of a substance use disorder, they don’t comprise a specific personality type, such as an addictive personality.”

Research contact: @mindbodygreen