social anxiety development

[Bolsy]

After having a sudden meltdown at work one day over a stressful situation I have started having panic attacks, and after a few months of CBT my therapist suggested I had social anxiety (which reading up on it makes complete sense!)

I am just wondering if anyone else has developed social anxiety after stress rather than grown up with it? When I read about it it seems to suggest it develops in teenage years and I guess I have often been on a rollercoaster of emotion, but this feels like a sudden emergence of stronger symptoms than I have had traditionally (I can normally push through it) so definitely feels like I’ve only just developed it as an actual mental illness

[designguy]

I'm older than you and there is much more awareness now about social anxiety but I knew I had some kind of issue and was later diagnosed with GAD and spent years not realizing that what I actually had was social anxiety and c-ptsd. So it could be that you're now just gaining the awareness, with help, to know what is really going on for you.