Social phobia: a debilitating disease that needs treatment.

Social phobia is a recognized clinical condition and is at least as well defined as other psychiatric disorders in which no brain damage has been identified. There are both qualitative and quantitative differences between pathological and normal anxiety. The separation of social phobia from normal shyness is clear from the distress suffered, the impact on daily activities, the duration of the condition and the qualitative difference of the anxiety experienced in social phobia.