Shy

“I’m not shy, I’m just really good at figuring out who’s worth talking to.”

Shyness can mean feeling uncomfortable, self-conscious, nervous, bashful, timid, or insecure.

This fear can inhibit a person’s ability to do or say what they want. It can also prevent the formation of healthy relationships.

Shyness is often linked to low self-esteem. It may also be one of the causes of social anxiety.

Severely shy people may have physical symptoms like blushing, sweating, a pounding heart or upset stomach; negative feelings about themselves; worries about how others view them; and a tendency to withdraw from social interactions. Most people feel shy at least occasionally.

Shyness is a trait that can be a result of environmental factors. These factors can stem from emotional abuse, ridicule, and other forms of child abuse, but not always.

There is a positive to being shy.

You appear more approachable. When shyness is not extreme, it can make you appear more approachable to others. Shyness, and the modesty and self-effacing nature that go with it, are rarely threatening to others and may allow people to feel more comfortable around you.

I look back on my own shyness as a kid. I didn’t talk much, but I just figured my brother spoke enough for the both of us that I didn’t need to! I could talk to him, though, and the rest of my family. It was around others when I would clam up and rely on my brother to take over the conversation.

My shyness took over and turned into anxiety, depression, and many other issues as I became an adult. I became the very definition of shy, depressed, anxious, self-loathing, and insecure, just to name a few.

This is all evident in my latest novel, The Waiting Room by Anonymous Gent.

I hid what was going on, isolated from everything and everyone (except my puppy dogs, of course), and let all the negatives nearly take over me.

Writing this book was cathartic. I have felt a huge weight off by letting go of what’s been bottled up for over twenty-five years. I wouldn’t wish anything I went through on anyone, but I know there are so many others out there facing something that is secretly killing them because they think they have to hide it.

Nowadays, I’ll get to talking and get on my own nerves! But it is so much better than pushing everything down and allowing it to eat away at me.

“People that don’t know me think I’m shy. People that do know me wish I were!”

Learn how this gal took shyness to a whole other level in The Waiting Room by Anonymous Gent, available on Amazon. Link also on our page.