SOCIAL PHOBIA Sarah Blackmore provides insight into living with social anxiety disorder.

More on the DVD "Living with Social Phobia"

"When you sit on the sidelines, you don’t allow people the opportunity to get to know you, and you don’t get to know yourself," says Sarah Blackmore who is living with social phobia.

Social phobia is defined as an intense fear of being humiliated in social situations and of being embarrassed in front of other people.

In "Living with Social Phobia", Sarah shares her brave journey from the lonely world of social anxiety to leading a balanced and satisfying life.

Read more about Social Phobia, click on

More on social phobia

Social phobia or social anxiety disorder is characterised by extreme fear of scrutiny by others, especially during performance. Social anxieties may present as a fear of being around other people, presenting a talk, even eating or signing cheques in public. The most common social anxiety is the fear of speaking in public.

People suffering from social anxiety disorder tend to think that they are not competent in public, while every other person is. They display three essential features – a fear of scrutiny by other people, a marked and persistent fear of performance situations, and an active avoidance of these feared situations. Physical symptoms of anxiety manifest themselves before, during and after the actual event. Small mistakes people generally ignore become exaggerated into anxiety-inducing events that create great embarrassment. Blushing, the body’s natural response to embarrassment, becomes a painfully embarrassing event in itself.