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Crippling shyness prevalent!
Up to eight percent of population afraid to go out to eat...
A type of shyness so extreme that it compels people to avoid eating in restaurants is far more common than previously believed.
Up to eight per cent of the population suffers from social phobia — the clinical name for debilitating shyness. Previous studies put the rate at one to two per cent.
People who are shy at the ages of 8 to 12 remain shy into their adult life, and a shy temperament can have profound effects on their lives.
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Data suggests that extreme shyness is twice as common among women than men. Shy women who marry and have families tend to spend about fifty percent longer in the home away from the work place. Men identified as shy as children were three to four years behind in marrying, having children, and establishing careers — a sign that they found it difficult to cope with new situations, make social contacts, and adopt unfamiliar roles.
Shyness predicted delays even after correction for social class, education, military service, and physical attractiveness. Because of their late career starts, research shows that shy men achieve less than their education, intelligence, and adolescent aspirations would suggest. Shy men who got a late career start were also more likely to be divorced or separate."It's really for many people a very disabling illness," said Dr. Murray Stein, a co-author of a recent report on this phenomenon. Extremely timid people are more likely to have low incomes and to have never attended university.
Those with higher educations can feel trapped in occupations where they work mostly alone.
"We've got tons of accountants and librarians and computer programmers and it's not that that's what they want to do but they sort of felt it was the only thing they could do to survive," said Stein, a psychiatrist who practises at a clinic for anxiety disorders at Winnipeg's St. Boniface Hospital.
Other studies have discovered more than half of the population greatly fears public speaking (one study found people ranked fear of public speaking higher than their fear of death) but extremely shy people will bypass almost anything that places them under such scrutiny.
Talking to their workmates, going out to lunch and going on dates are avoided. They also tend to shun university because "the thought of presenting at seminars is unthinkable," Stein said.
Extreme shyness is a relatively new area of study and treatment usually involves psychotherapy or anti-depressant drugs (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors - SSRI drugs: such as Prozac®; Serzone®; Zololf®; tricyclic antidepressants; benzodiazepines or monamine oxidase inhibitors, SmithKline Beecham's anti-depression / anti aniexty drug Seroxat®, Paroxetine; marketed under the brand name Paxil®...) 
And of course there's always alcohol which has a LARGE array of issues and risks, but which can reduce inhibitions and/or social fear.)
"Years ago nobody really thought much about social phobia," said Stein. "People didn't think of going to a doctor and saying: 'I'm excessively shy..."
(MAYBE) Help is on the way It's better here and now I feel that good today...
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Based on the traffic flow to this page, many people are searching for a "cure for shyness". That would be great! But there's nothing that's exactly that. One of the most interesting things to appear very recently in the literature — based on my personal research and interest into this problem is Centella asiatica (also called Gotu Kola as shown on the right) Significant recent scientific research has found quite good results from this herb... it might be worth a try! Variations appear in the literature for dosage recomendations. Not being Doctor Shyaway I would say two 350mg capsules taken once per day with food would be reasonable. (You might even have better memory function, healthy skin and live longer, it's very inexpensive and quite widely available!) It appears to act on the cholecystokinin system, a neurotransmitter system that could play a role in anxiety, according to Dr. Jacques Bradwejn. The only significant side-effect of which I am aware is a slight increase in sensitivity to the sun — so use suncreen and watch those rays.
Shyness Physiological predisposition.
General Information on Shyness
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