Shyness is anxiety resulting from a failure, or anticipated failure, to present one’s self or one’s actions to an audience. For the socially shy, it is the anxiety resulting from the possibility of giving unintended offense which, combined with fear of rejection, makes this anxiety particularly strong.
The shy person is sensitive to the potential danger that the other will evaluate them negatively and uses this assumption of threat to avoid interaction or, if interaction is compelled, allow their performance to be depreciated due to nervousness about how they are being judged.
Timidification is the all too frequent outcome and as a result a person’s life chances tend to be overly narrowed. When shyness is so extreme as to interfere with life functioning it becomes diagnosed as social anxiety disorder. However, most common forms of shyness are short lived, tend to be widely generalized in the population and are easily overcome as a person gains friendship and acceptance from others.

Overcoming Shyness