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The story
“Social anxiety disorder” causes intense anxiety and fear in social situations, disrupting everyday life. ABEMA Prime reports that roughly 1 in 50 people in Japan experience it, often with onset during adolescence. As the term “komyu-sho” (slang for being socially awkward) has spread, many sufferers reportedly never realize it’s a medical condition and instead assume it’s just a flaw in their own personality. Reactions on a 5ch thread ranged widely — from people relating to being hopeless on the phone, to questions like “I read the article and still can’t tell how this differs from just being bad at socializing,” to outright skepticism toward psychiatric diagnosis itself.
Published 8/29 (Sat) 11:00 — ABEMA TIMES
“Social anxiety disorder” causes intense anxiety and fear when interacting with others or being the center of attention, disrupting everyday life. It’s said to affect roughly 1 in 50 people in Japan, often with onset in adolescence. But as the term “komyu-sho” (slang for being socially awkward) has become commonplace, many sufferers don’t realize it’s a medical condition and instead chalk it up to their own personality.
On “ABEMA Prime,” sufferers and specialists discussed “social anxiety disorder,” which is distinct from simply being “bad at communication.”
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
Turning everything into a "disorder" is basically a psychiatrist's whole job.
The problem with psychiatry is they just slap a diagnosis on you without actually curing you, unlike internal medicine or surgery.
They act like the job's basically done once you've got a label.
It's all just copy-pasting whatever the American medical associations came up with.
Plenty of internal medicine and surgery cases drag on forever without a full cure too.
People really need to drop this idea that walking into a hospital and talking to a doctor magically fixes everything.
They should really back it up with hard numbers.
Feels like they don't even check your heart rate.
Even now I end up saying the weirdest, most nonsensical stuff.
For me it's the opposite – I can talk to random strangers I just met since we'll never see each other again anyway.
But coworkers are the hard part.
Knowing I'll have to deal with this person long-term makes me freeze up over how to act.
Right?
If it's disrupting your life and medication doesn't just fix it quick, that basically makes it a disorder.
That's you, lol.
With a shallow mindset like that, sorting everyone into neat little boxes, you're never gonna get it – just give up.
I bet that leaves some people traumatized.
Honestly the ones who suddenly snap and get aggressive are the ones with the real problem.
Some of this stuff could just be part of who you are.
If it's rough every single day and you can't fix it on your own, isn't it better to see a specialist?
Nobody calls athlete's foot "part of their personality" – if it's treatable, treat it.
It's not just "part of who you are" – plenty of people out there will straight-up attack you for it.
In the end it's not about individuality, it's a pathology of human society where people go after anyone who doesn't fit the mold.
This board's crawling with them too.
Because I'm loaded 🥹 (an "okuri-bito" – slang for someone who's made ¥100 million+ investing)
Not the slangy "komyu-sho" (コミュ障, meaning "bad at socializing") – the clinical "komyu-sho" (コミュ症, using the kanji for "condition"). Same pronunciation, different thing.
I have zero interest in what people are saying, but for some reason people talk to me all the time. My biggest concern is just when it's going to end.
So you're basically everyone's convenient little puppet.
Even the ones who act nice – once you realize that's what they're all like when nobody they know is around, you stop wanting to deal with people at all.
A genuinely good person and someone just acting like a good person might look the same, but they're worlds apart.
Phone-walkers are so annoying.
Honestly that's its own kind of disorder, and I think it's already too late for them.
At this rate 80% of the country's going to end up diagnosed with a developmental disorder lol.
Pretty sure we're already there.
They'll just scale the diagnosis rate to however many doctors are available.
Can't diagnose what you don't have the staff to see, lol.
That's just being self-conscious.
Nobody's even thinking about you.
Easy to say, but the big data's already there, and plenty of people subjectively decide someone's "weird" and use exposing or bullying them online as social lubricant.
In reality it's people like you, spouting programmed template lines just to shut others up.
And guys like this love thinking they've won the second they yell "that's just emotional reasoning."
Meanwhile Japanese people especially love backstabbing, nasty bullying, and gossip.
The moment someone seems a little off, everyone starts whispering.
I used to be the type obsessed with what everyone around me thought back in school, but once I became a working adult I realized other people's opinions genuinely don't matter.
My relationship stress dropped a ton after that.
Sounds like something a 70-something old man would say.
It's actually the opposite.
Showa-era sports clubs from half a century ago are nothing like Heisei/Reiwa-era ones, especially post-2000s.
Now you're actually forced to hone real skills, so tons of people drop out.
Same goes for work.
If it were that easy, nobody would struggle.
Re: #111
No, I don't think that's entirely wrong.
A lot of people from sports-club backgrounds really are tough and capable.
Even inside those supposedly tough sports-club organizations, there's bullying, and people end up killing themselves over it.
Not just sports teams either – the military, the police, same story.
Thank you for your medication! (a sarcastic 5ch stock phrase implying someone sounds like they need meds)
Got tested and turns out I have ASD too. Always figured I was neurotypical, but I actually had social anxiety and Asperger's this whole time.
So THIS is what's been making life so hard for me…
Re: #109
When the meds kick in I feel like I've turned neurotypical, lol – it's genuinely shocking, like "wait, is THIS the kind of ease you guys have had all along?"
Background and Key Points
Social anxiety disorder is one of the anxiety disorders listed in the DSM-5, and is academically distinct from “komyu-sho” (コミュ障), which is generally treated as just a personality trait. It’s diagnosed when intense, persistent anxiety or fear disrupts daily life, and treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy and medication are reasonably well established. Opinions in the thread split over trust in psychiatric diagnosis itself, with skeptics who felt “everything gets labeled a disorder” clashing with people speaking from lived experience who said treatment and medication genuinely helped. What readers tend to misunderstand is that “komyu-sho” (being bad at socializing) is more of a slang term for a personality trait, whereas “social anxiety disorder” is a medical condition assessed by the intensity of the anxiety and how much it disrupts daily life – and this blurry line was at the center of the debate in both the article and the responses.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Breaking News+) thread “Afraid to talk to people… What is ‘social anxiety disorder,’ which 1 in 50 people experience? Sufferers troubled by being confused with ‘bad at communication’ say: ‘It’s a legitimate disorder’.”
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