Hannah Wolfe

English 1201
Professor Hellmers
11/15/2014

Social Anxiety vs. Shyness

Whats the difference?

Everyone experiences shyness at one point or another in their life, whether it be a child
on their first day of school or a teen entering a new social group, everyone has these moments of
shyness, but is it really just shyness or is it something more? This topic of social anxiety first
caught my attention when I had to do an assignment for my First Year Experience class last
semester, I had to take the Jung's personality test for one of my assignments, I turned out to be an
INFJ which have very introverted characteristics and can be very shy. After the assignment was
over I wanted to know more about an INFJ's personality and after googling it is where I came
across an article comparing shyness and Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). I had never heard of
Social Anxiety before, but I have personally always struggled with being a really shy person so
the article sparked a curiosity in me. After reading through the article and seeing the comparisons
of Social Anxiety and shyness and seeing the characteristics of SAD I started to wonder if I am
struggling, not with shyness but instead with Social Anxiety Disorder. Shyness and SAD are
often compared and only in recent years have scientist really started to consider social anxiety an
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actual mental condition, but is there really as much of a difference in these two as they are
getting made out to be?

One of the questions that I think needs to be answered first is what is shyness? Author
Karen Payne gave her definition of shyness in her article "Understanding and Overcoming
Shyness Payne defined shyness as "the feeling of discomfort or inhibition in a social or
interpersonal situation that keeps you from pursuing your goals, either academic or personal".
Studies have shown that more than 50% of the population are currently effected by some type of
degree of shyness and that 80% or more have said that they have struggled with some degree of
shyness in the past. There are several different degrees of shyness which vary widely, but the
most common is situational shyness. Situational shyness is when someone struggles with
becoming fearful or inhibited in certain situations. The most common situations that cause this
type of shyness are intimate encounters, initiating any action in a social group or setting, and
interacting with any type of authority figure. These types of situation inflict reactions that are
cognitive, affective, and behavioral, which effect the person who is suffering thoughts, feelings
and bodies and cause them to become withdrawn from the situations that they are a part of. Less
common than situational shyness is social phobia, which symptoms cause sufferers to avoid and
fear most situations involving contact with others and though this is a less common disorder it is
a more chronic form shyness.

Secondly, what is social anxiety? Social anxiety is one of the most common anxiety
disorders to date and affects about 15 million Americans and the onset of symptoms usually start
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at the age of 13. This disorder often causes suffers to feel like they cant handle social situations
and makes them nervous and uncomfortable for fear that they might do something embarrassing
and humiliating. Some of the situations that causes people with social anxiety to feel this way are
public speaking, participating in class, writing in front of others, talking on the phone, and
expressing opinions to name a few. Symptoms for SAD vary but, the most common symptoms
are profuse sweating, stomach pain, blushing, shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, and dizziness.
Social anxiety is also known by another name called social phobia, which is as is stated in the
above paragraph. This is a less common disorder it is a more chronic form of shyness, and this is
one of the things that both shyness and SAD have in common. This disorder first became
classified as a mental disorder in the late 1980s and professionals believe that this is one of the
most underrated mental disorders to date.

Thirdly, how do shyness and social anxiety disorder compare? Though many like to say
that even though there are a lot of similarities of social anxiety and shyness and in fact many of
their symptoms overlap, there is a common misconception of the two and shyness is a more
extreme form of social anxiety disorder, this is not the case. Yes, everyone feels discomfort or
some sort of shyness in new social situations or being with people who are unfamiliar to them at
some point in their life, but the feelings that you show during these situations usually subside
once you get comfortable, but with social anxiety this is not the case. People who suffer from
SAD, their symptoms never go away no matter how long they have been in the situation, they
always feel that they are being constantly judged on what they are doing or what they are saying

by those who are surrounding them. One of the symptoms that help set these a part are the
anxiety levels both sets of suffers face, there is a very little anxiety level for people who suffer
from shyness, while there is a very high level of anxiety for those with SAD, for example in one
of the above paragraph where it is stated that people who are shy will get over it quickly once
they feel comfortable in social situations, while people who have SAD never get over it no
matter how long theyve been in the situation which increases the anxiety level. Also another
thing that relates these two is the degree that people avoid certain social situations. People with
shyness have little to no avoidance to social situations unlike people with SAD who will avoid
situations that make them uncomfortable to the degree that they may go as far as to stop going
out so they dont have to meet new people and even dropping out of school. The main difference
between these two disorders goes along with these other two
points is how far people with SAD will go because they feel
that there are no other options of ways to deal with the
disorder. This disorder makes them nervous to eat or drink in
front of other people, use public bathrooms, or even order
food over the phone or at a drive-thru. The sad thing is that
this disorder could easily be treated if people where more
honest and out spoken with their symptoms and with seeking help. 36% of people who suffer
from this have said to have had symptoms of ten or more years before seeking help.

Though many people dont seek treatment for social anxiety, there are several different
types of treatment options for this disorder. First, medicine is someone that doctors use to help
treat patients with social anxiety, some of the more common medicines are antidepressants and
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anti-anxiety medications. Antidepressants along with being helpful to treat depression, are also
helpful in treating social phobia (which is another name for social anxiety) and take usually
several weeks to start working, an antidepressant called monoamine oxidase inhibitor is a
certain kind that help specifically with social phobia, though this medication can have bad
side effects when mixed with certain types of foods so patients have to be cautious when
taking this. It is also important to point out that antidepressants though helpful in the
treatment for social anxiety is not for everyone and can even be dangerous to certain types
of people because it can increase suicidal thoughts in teens and young adults. Secondly,
most doctors because of the risks that the medications can cause, recommend therapy to
people with this disorder. Cognitive behavior therapy is a certain type of psychotherapy that
can help with treatment. This type of therapy helps with changing someones old thinking
habits and patterns and focuses on three main areas behavior, cognitive, and emotional.
The area of behavior covers how people act during everyday life situations where people
are bothered by the types of situations that increase their anxiety levels, this is one of the
most essential areas for patients that are being treated. The Emotional area is important
because it helps patients learn how to have a calm and peaceful place in their minds to help
them to be able to relax and stay calm during the present times of the situations that cause
them anxiety. The cognitive area is the area that helps people focus on changing their
thoughts and habits, the goal for this area is to help people train their minds to respond
differently than they have in the past and to help decrease negative thinking. Thomas A.
Richards, is a psychologist and the director of the Social Anxiety Institute (SAI) and he posted
an article on the specific type of therapy on the SAI website. In his article titled Comprehensive
Cognitive-Behavior Therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder Richards states that The mind cannot
work overnight and cannot be pressured into learning things faster. So, it is important, in the
cognitive process, to turn the tables on automatic negative thinking slowly. Though this is a
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process and it doesnt work for everyone, therapy is the better option compared to different
types of medications to help treat social anxiety.

In conclusion, I believe that I got the answers to the questions that I wanted to know at

the beginning of the semester from the research I have done, I dont believe that I have SAD
based on the way that I am able to live my everyday life and how I am able to function, I think
that I am just an overly shy person who takes a while to get comfortable with new surroundings.
Yes, there are symptoms that both shyness and social anxiety have in common they are not the
same disorder. I think that they have a lot in common, more than I first thought when I started
doing research in the beginning of the semester however, I have come to the conclusion that
both of these arent the same disorder. Yes, social anxiety goes by social phobia which is a less

common disorder that is a more chronic form shyness, but the symptoms and how they affect
someones life are on to entirely different levels. Shyness is something that we have all
experienced and is something that we have gotten over as soon as we got comfortable with the
surroundings of the situation, whereas social anxiety is a mental disorder that can make someone
completely stop their life because they dont know how to cope. It is so easy for us as a society
to say that someone is just shy or anti-social when in reality, they might be suffering from
something more, this is such an underrated mental disorder that this is often seen as not being a
problem, or as just being shyness. Shyness is not unique to one particular personality type, but is
something that effects more than just one type of personality. The Jung's personality test, is what
started me asking questions and is something that helped me with figuring out what type of
personality I have and whether or not this disorder affected me. I would recommend this test to

someone starting a journey who wants to figure out more about themselves and the types of
personality that they display.

Work Cited

Anxiety and Depression Association of America. Facts and Statistics. Web. Nov 14 2014.

Buckley, Anna. Is Being Shy an Illness? United Kingdom, BBC News Magazine. Web. 4 March
2008.
Burnett, Dean. Social Anxiety: why the mundane can be terrifying. Web. 16 October 2014.
Halse, Kate. Talk therapy is best for overcoming social anxiety, study finds. Daily Digest News.
Web. Sep 29 2014.
Penn State. "Inhibited Children become anxious adults: Examining the causes and effacts of
early shyness." ScieneDaily. ScieneDaily, 17 April 2014.
Richards, Thomas A. Comprehensive Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Social Anxiety
Disorder. Social Anxiety Institute. Web. Nov 14 2014.
Shields, Margot. Social Anxiety Disorder--beyond shyness. Sinclair Library Database. Web.
2004.