It is absolutely okay to feel nervous at times in certain social situations, like going out to see someone for the first time, leading a meeting, giving a presentation, etc. However, in social anxiety disorder, this feeling of nervousness, anxiety, and self-consciousness is significantly higher, making regular interactions extremely difficult. It also involves a constant fear of being judged by people or being seen in a negative light. Though it is said that most such disorders are mostly ‘in the head’, social anxiety might be in your gut.
How Is Social Anxiety Related To Gut Health?
According to the study titled ‘Social anxiety disorder-associated gut microbiota increases social fear’, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), gut microbes play a significant role in the intense anxiety that people with social anxiety disorder feel. Gut microbes are a collection of bacteria and other microorganisms that live in people's gastrointestinal systems. They built upon previous research that proved that gut microbes greatly differ in people with social anxiety when compared with healthy individuals with no such difficulties.
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Experimentation
As part of the experiment, the researchers took fecal samples from six healthy individuals and six people with social anxiety disorder. The DNA analyses on the retrieved samples shed light on the fact that the samples collected from the groups of individuals were significantly different from each other. These very samples were then injected into mice who previously received antibiotics to be able to shield their bodies from the microbiota. Subsequently, the mice were made to go through a series of examinations to observe the changes in their social cognition, and ability to cope with stress.
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What Did The Researchers Find?
Throughout the tests, It was observed that the mice with these microbes in their body had heightened sensitivity to social fear and displayed certain changes in immunity and the brain. The ones without the SAD fecal microbiota maintained their curiosity and interacted with other mice, as opposed to the mice with SAD fecal microbiota who behaved differently after the social fear experiment. With this experiment, researchers came to the conclusion that gut microbes play a significant role in heightened social fear responses in social anxiety disorder.