Shyness and Social Anxiety
7There is no question that when anxiety is too intense it can interfere with perfor -
mance; however, mild to moderate amounts of anxiety are actually helpful. If you never 
became even slightly anxious under any circumstances, you probably wouldn’t bother 
doing the things that must be done. Why would you bother preparing an assignment on 
time, dressing nicely for a date, or eating healthy food if you weren’t concerned about 
the consequences of not doing these things? In part, it is anxiety that motivates us to 
work hard, prepare for challenges, and protect ourselves from possible threats.
In contrast to anxiety, fear is a basic emotion that occurs when an individual is con -
fronted with an immediate real or imagined danger. Fear leads to a sudden, intense 
physiological alarm reaction that essentially has one purpose—to get the person away 
from the danger as quickly as possible. When people feel fearful, their bodies go into 
overdrive to ensure that escape is fast and successful. Heart rate and blood pressure 
increase to transfer blood to the large muscles. Breathing quickens to improve the ﬂow 
of oxygen throughout the body. People sweat to cool off the body and perform more 
efﬁciently. In fact, all of these symptoms of arousal and fear are designed to make escape 
easier, allowing for survival in the face of danger.
Panic attack  is the clinical term used to describe the experience of intense fear that 
takes place even though no realistic danger is actually present. Panic attacks can be trig -
gered by speciﬁc situations that people fear (for example, giving an oral presentation, 
being in a high place, seeing a snake) or they sometimes occur out of the blue, without