Could it be social anxiety?

Question

Usually when i meet new people one on one or in small groups of say, 5-7 i do really well and am usually very sociable. But if it a big party and i don't know very many people or anybody at all i tend to just stay off to the side nervous. Could i have social anxiety?

Answer 1

Social anxiety is an emotional discomfort, fear, apprehension or worry, regarding social situations and being evaluated by other people. It occurs early in childhood as a normal part of social functioning. People vary in how often they experience social anxiety or in which kinds of situations. It can be related to shyness or other emotional or temperamental factors, but its exact nature is still the subject of research and theory. Extreme social anxiety can be disabling and may be diagnosed as social anxiety disorder (social phobia).

Personally from what you have told me I dont think you have social anxiety. If you were to meet new people and it's a challenge to be able to talk to them, thats a different story.

Hope this helps :)

Answer 2

Well, social phobia means feeling anxiety in social situations, or to be accurate, having a fear for being evaluated negatively in social situations.  

If this is your only anxiety then I wouldn't say you have social phobia/social anxiety but may have a mild version of something called sociophobia.

Sociophobia is "a fear of social gatherings, fear of socializing, fear of embarrassment in social situations that is extremely intrusive and can have markedly debilitating effects on personal and professional relationships."

You say you are fine in small groups so I wouldn't worry about it too much. A lot of people feel a bit out of place and awkward in situations such as the one you described.

If you wanna know more there are a lot of great sites of social phobia if you just google it.