The blood pounded in his ears and his heart pounded in his chest. His hands were shaking. His vision was blurry, as if he were looking through the wrong glasses. His face heated up and sweat pooled in his sweaty hands. His roaring heartbeat drowned out the voice of his teacher asking if he was okay. Tears blurred his vision. His chest tightened. He couldn't breathe. He shook his head vaguely and ran out of the classroom, stopping only when he reached the foyer, completely exhausted and taking deep breaths of fresh air. While shyness is similar to anxiety, and it's easy to confuse both, anxiety is much more serious and is a real disorder that can leave people unable to cope with social situations if dismissed as something else. Anxiety is characterized by hyperconcentration and overanalysis of daily activities. People diagnosed with social anxiety disorder (SAD) will continue to review past actions and criticize themselves, sometimes even imagining themselves in future situations and anticipating difficult feelings and thoughts they will experience. They even convince themselves that everyone will notice their discomfort and judge them for it. They have what Jenny C. calls reverse narcissism. Instead of wanting to be in the spotlight and have attention directed at them, people diagnosed with SAD have a deflated sense of self and avoid the spotlight. People diagnosed with SAD are not necessarily shy. Normally they might appear talkative and friendly, but beneath the surface they may struggle with anxious thoughts that affect their social behavior, making them unable to cope with public activities. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Shyness, on the other hand, is characterized by the tendency to feel uncomfortable or tense during social encounters, especially with unfamiliar people (American Psychological Association, “Shyness”). Severely shy people may have physical signs of illness, such as blushing, sweating, a fast heartbeat or stomach pain, negative feelings about themselves, worries about how others see them, and a tendency to withdraw from social interactions. This definition is frighteningly similar to that of social anxiety, and it's obvious how both can be confused with each other. However, the symptoms of shyness are boring compared to those of social anxiety. Some main symptoms that differentiate both are the severity of the fear, the level of avoidance, and the impairment in functioning it causes in a person's life. Furthermore, after getting acquainted, the symptoms of shyness begin to appear, while SAD does not. Although shyness can evolve into social anxiety, it is not a natural progression, and many people diagnosed with SAD do not consider themselves shy. Social anxiety disorder is undoubtedly a truly life-limiting condition, not only because of the physical symptoms it creates, but also because those who suffer from it tend to give themselves a hard time, serving only to reinforce anxiety levels ( MacDonald, “How to distinguish between social anxiety and shyness”). They understand that their fear is logically unjustified, but they cannot control it. Unfortunately, when social anxiety is often left untreated, under the assumption that there is no way out, it may be left to thrive for years. However, many medical officials have developed methods to help deal with the lifelong illness, such as Overcoming Social Anxiety, which uses parts of dialectical behavior therapy and the Buddhist concept of mindfulness to teach individuals with anxiety,.