| Coping with anxiety is something that most | | | | Other Japanese people, generally males, have |
| people have probably dealt with at some point in | | | | become drawn into otaku behavior as a means of |
| their lives. Being nervous and twitchy about | | | | dealing with social anxiety. In Japanese culture, an |
| something is a natural reaction, particularly in a | | | | otaku is an obsessive fan of a particular show or |
| world of lawsuits, divorce papers, terrorist | | | | series that ends up collecting each and every |
| threats, and Orwellian paranoia. To top those off, | | | | piece of merchandise of that specific obsession. |
| there are also concerns about one's social status | | | | While not as completely cut off from the rest of |
| and place in the social hierarchy, which can | | | | society as a hikikomori, an otaku is nonetheless a |
| sometimes compound social anxiety on top of | | | | person that has little in the field of social skills, or |
| regular anxiety. This multitude of factors makes | | | | at least perceives himself to lack such skills. To a |
| coping with anxiety that much harder in modern | | | | degree, the otaku is using his obsession to |
| society. While most people inevitably learn how to | | | | substitute for human social interaction, though it |
| adapt, for others, coping with anxiety and having | | | | also promotes meeting with similar individuals to |
| to deal with social anxiety can become a less than | | | | locate potential buyers when the otaku eventually |
| productive activity. | | | | sells his collection in favor of starting a new one. |
| People with subtle mental issues, such as | | | | In Western culture, particularly in the US, social |
| malignant narcissism, are hard to spot, though | | | | anxiety is seen as a weakness and something |
| most experts agree that stressing out an already | | | | that is "not entirely normal." Society has a |
| unstable mind can be a disastrous activity. Social | | | | tendency to push people that are socially |
| anxiety is already seen as a common | | | | withdrawn into the social arena, without any |
| denominator among the psychological profiles of | | | | regard for their psychological capacity to adapt to |
| modern serial killers, with some people in the field | | | | such circumstances. In rare cases, when in |
| believing it to be one of the root causes of the | | | | conjunction with other mental disorders, these |
| deviant behavior exhibited by such individuals. | | | | people can lash out at society, generally by openly |
| Others similarly theorize that the behavior of a | | | | rebelling against the social norm of their particular |
| serial killer is a way of coping with anxiety, albeit | | | | community. An example of this would be the |
| one that is affected by other psychological | | | | "Goth" culture that crops up in some schools, |
| conditions. | | | | which stand in direct defiance of the |
| Interestingly, people coping with anxiety and social | | | | homogeneous social policies of most high school |
| anxiety do so in different ways, particularly in | | | | student bodies. |
| different cultures. For example, some Japanese | | | | However, it is the ones that strike back covertly |
| people, buckling under the pressures of Japanese | | | | that one should be wary of. These people may |
| society and social duties, have found an unusual | | | | not necessarily turn into serial killers along the lines |
| way of coping with anxiety. While the hikikomori | | | | of Dennis Rader, the infamous BTK strangler or |
| tactic, which involves withdrawing from all social | | | | Ted Bundy, they can potentially turn into another |
| activity and interpersonal interaction for extended | | | | Dylan Klebold or Seng Hui Cho. The difficulty here |
| periods, is more accurately seen as running away | | | | lies in the fact that people tend to ignore the |
| from social anxiety, it is nonetheless their means | | | | signs of this sort of backlash until the guns have |
| of coping with the societal pressures in their lives. | | | | already started blazing. |