>>13965839You understand how the body can be allergic to things, a purely physical process, and makes you react with unwanted side effects?
Well take that same logic and apply it to the mental aspect. Some people will get a nervous/anxious train of thought out of nowhere and even though they can be 100% rational about it, it will not disappear, they body is still activating it's flight, fright, fight response.
It's an extreme form of nervousness and you're body being optimised to reduce stress as much as possible starts associating social contexts with stress. Therefore the simple step is made: less social contact = less stress. This is true in the acute sense, but the long term effects are severe; social isolation, insecurity leading to even more stress because of deprived social contacts etc. At that point external help is needed to remove these lines of thinking and instead offer ones that reduce/remove the stress from social contact, but also rebuild what was lost due to the longevity of the condition; analogue to allergies would be desensitizing to the allergen.
