Social Anxiety: When People Scare You

It's not just being shy. You're afraid that people see through you and find you worthless.

Social anxiety means other people feel dangerous. Not physically. But in terms of judgment. You're afraid they'll criticize you, laugh at you, reject you, think you're stupid, boring, or ridiculous. And this fear is so intense that you avoid people—or suffer whenever you're around them.

This isn't mere shyness. A shy person might feel nervous but copes. Someone with social anxiety experiences panic. Speaking feels hard, eating in public feels hard, passing by a group feels hard, even standing in line feels hard, because it seems like everyone is watching and finding faults.