What's the difference between social anxiety and agoraphobia? #KatiFAQ

Hey everybody. Happy Thursday!

And when it's Thursday … what is it?

I'm doing an FAQ video or things in the

media. There are a lot of things in the

media. Many of you have commented.

Don't think that I have missed it. But I

had a couple of good questions today

that I wanted to address. And I've been

doing some thinking about videos, and I

think I'm going to do my journal topics as

separate videos. I find many of you have

let me know that you really like those

short, clip videos, where it's just

something inspirational to kind of help

get you through your day. So instead of

doing two videos a week, now I'll do

three. And I'll do a, you know, journal

topic inspiration. So share your ideas!

If there's anything that you've read about,

heard about, saw on Pinterest or

something tweet it to me, leave it in the

comments below. And I shall make a

video about that. So today I have two

questions, and both of these are really

good. So let's get going.

First question says, "Hey Kati. First of all

very nice video." This person's referring

to the agoraphobia video I put out on

Monday. If you haven't checked it out,

you should check it out. "I have a

question. Describing the disorder you

really focused on embarrassment

connected to the possibility of getting out

of a stressful situation. Does this feeling

have anything in common with social

anxiety? And if so, what are the main

differences?" Because if you remember

correctly in my video I talk about

agoraphobia being an anxiety disorder.

Now the really awesome thing about the

DSM … cause I have to put a different

book under my thing, because I had to

use this to reference … is that it shares

with you differential diagnoses, which is

really the way of saying how is this

different from the other disorders.

Because a lot of them seem very similar.

How do we differentiate between the two?

And it says, I'm gonna read this to you,

'cause I tend to blab so sometimes it's

good if I just read you what it says.

So with reference to social anxiety

disorder, or social phobia, it says

"agoraphobia should be differentiated

from social anxiety disorder based

primarily on the situational clusters that

trigger the fear, anxiety or avoidance,

and the cognitive ideation." So in social

anxiety disorder the focus is on the fear

of being negatively evaluated. If you

remember when I've talked about this in

other videos, social anxiety is when we

fear what other people are thinking of us,

what they might say to others about us,

that we could be negatively evaluated by

them. Agoraphobia is more about trying

to get out, having a panic attack, being

embarrassed about trying to leave. Now I

see how these kind of go together, but

you can also see how they're separated.

The social anxiety is more about how

we're perceived by others, where as

agoraphobia is just the fear, like it says

the fear or anxiety or avoidance because

we worry about how we'll get out if we

have a panic attack. Or that it could be

really embarrassing, because we might

stumble, like try to get out really quickly.

I hope that that makes it clear. If you

need more clarification feel free to re-ask

the question and I can blab some more.

Okay. Question number two, "Hey Kati

my therapist told me she'd like me to see

a dietician." Uhh, she didn't! "Only I'm

not sure I really need it." You never think

you do. Sorry I'll stop with my

commentary. "I do some eating disorder

behaviors, but I still eat enough most

days. And the behaviors are only there

for a few days, and then I have other

behaviors. Different behaviors that

switch off and on. And I've only seen my

therapist for two times now. And I've only

really told her what went wrong. I don't

want to waste peoples' time going to a

dietician when I don't really need it."

This got so much chatter on the website.

Holy schmollies, you guys really had

opinions about this. So I thought, let's

talk about it. Now seeing a dietician is

good. It's something that we can all, all

of us who have any kind of eating

disorder behaviors. I know you're

thinking but I don't really think I have

an eating disorder. I only purge

sometimes or I only restrict, but it comes

off and on. I have a video from like I don't

know … any of my OG's out there? It's

like two years ago, my original FAQ

video. I'm wearing like a teal sweater.

It says FAQ on the thumbnail so just

search. Well no you can't, because all of

my videos would come up. But anyway

it says FAQs. One of them is If You Think

You Have an Eating Disorder You

Probably Do. Just let that wash over you

for a second. Because I know it's hard,

and we always think "But it's not that

bad. I don't do it all the time. It comes

and goes." Eating disorders are sneaky.

They like come in, I feel like they're like

ink in water, where all of a sudden the

water is turned a whole different color.

But we're like but it only just started

this little. It's crazy. It can get in there,

morph, change. As soon as you think

you understand where it comes from and

what it's doing, it's already changing to

something else. And so even when we

feel like "it's not bad enough to get more

help" we still need to get more help.

Because the sooner we get the help, the

better. And seeing a dietician, whether

we binge, whether we purge, whether we

binge and purge, whether we restrict,

whether we over exercise. It doesn't

matter. We're using any kind of eating

disorder behavior, a dietician can really

help. They're not going to make you get

fat. They're not gonna make you eat too

much food. That's part of their job.

They're going to work with you to put

together a plan, set goals with you, and

they're going to check in with you. And

they're going to challenge you, but it's

all part of the process. Just like with the

therapist, I'm not going to make you go

all the way at once. Like we're gonna go

through this, just, you know, get through

all this shit and move on. That's not

how it works. It's a process, and they're

going to work with you. And I encourage

all of you, when you're therapist says you

know you should probably see a

dietician, do it. They are really helpful.

They are amazing. They will definitely

help you manage those symptoms.

They'll ask you the hard questions about

food and what you think about food.

Because we know it's not about the food,

but we're using food to cope. And so they

will work on that spot with you so your

therapist can help you better manage the

emotional stuff. Together you get the best

results, so don't think you have to be

on death's doorstep to get help. Don't

think that you have to be really thick in

your eating disorder to get a dietitian to

help you. You can all benefit. If you're

struggling with any eating disorder

behavior please see a dietitian as well

as a therapist. It gives you the best

outcome. Promise. Okay. I love you all.

I will see you, I'm not sure when I'll put

out the journal topic video. You'll just

have to subscribe, so you don't miss it.

And then I will see you all on Monday.

And some of you I'll see in New York. Yea!

Okay, bye!