Shyness and social anxiety can be very detrimental to the quality of the lives of those who suffer from them. It is a common mistake to think that they are one and the same, but that is not the case. If you are shy, you may have social anxiety. If you have social anxiety you may exhibit shyness. One is a subset of another in that being shy is a subset of social anxiety.

Shyness is a natural tendency of human beings when faced with unfamiliar social circumstances or situations. Social anxiety is much less common than shyness. People often find it hard to differentiate between the two, so lets now look at the underlying characteristics of each of them, with the intention of making it easier.

A good example to use is a young girl being introduced (by her parents) to a young boy. The young girl may exhibit shyness in the form of being unable to talk to the young boy. Social phobia on the other hand may inhibit the young girl from even showing herself in the presence of the young boy. In that manner, one can say that shyness is a milder form of social anxiety.

Still, though social anxiety can be described as an amplified form of shyness, shyness is often not the best indicator than someone has social anxiety. Therefore, for a diagnosis of social anxiety to be made, someone must display more characteristics of social anxiety than just shyness. For example, someone suffering from social anxiety often trembles and physically cannot say words properly.

Without the additional symptoms of social anxiety, the behavior shown by the girl could thus only be labeled as shyness. Shyness is different from social anxiety in that it can be treated with constant exposure and repetitive contact with groups of people. The same can also be effective in social anxiety. Thus it may be good to expose the subject to a small group of 1 to 2 people and then when the subject shows willingness, the group may then be placed in a slightly larger group composed of 3 or more people.

In the end, shyness and social anxiety are not permanently debilitating conditions. Help is there for those that want it, and they should ask for it as soon as they feel that their problem is affecting their ability to make the progress in their life that they would like to. There are proven methods and techniques available that have worked on even severe sufferers, so you can rest assured that however bad you think your problem is, there is hope for you.

You can obtain more information on overcoming social anxiety and  social phobia treatment here.