SOCIAL PHOBIAS CAN TRIGGER ANXIETY.

• Position: Anxiety disorders - Brief Article

Feeling anxious? Maybe you would rather stay at home than spend an evening holding a martini and chitchatting with your spouse's work friends over a plate of cheese balls. If the thought of attending a dinner party and having to speak with people you don't know leaves you so panic-stricken you can't function, you may have social phobia, the third-most-diagnosed mental disorder behind depression and alcoholism, suggests Rick Heimberg, a psychology professor who directs Temple University's Adult Anxiety Clinic, Philadelphia, Pa.

"Social...