There is no nececarily valid link between LDers and shyness here, only a few people have actually posted on this topic, and there are probably millions of people who LD (somewhere i read all ppl can do it, so then there are 6 billion…). Another related question might be if some people who are behind a pc all day long might be too shy to go outside and live a “IRL” life…
Everyone who is not a jerk is moderately shy. I will tell you something; I used to play piano, and once I had a performance, I stepped up to the piano, in front of 100+ people, and started. In the middle I got obsessed by the fact that my shoe was slipping off the pedal, and suddenly I played horribly wrong, BOINGGG! I started from the beginning, but horror, upon reaching the same section for the second time, BONIGGG…, I beheld the notes, and in that instant they were pure nonsense. I had to step up and walk away in front of everyone. I have never been as humiliated in my life. After this I definitely became less shy.
Do what is good, in the future you will look back realising it was not all bad. I have made many mistakes, never telling a girl how I admire her and regretting it even 5 years later. Remember, never be afraid of telling your emotions, only a fool will ridicule you if you do it properly.
How to become self-confident? Try going out partying with strangers, but do NOT drink. Be yourself, the others who have had a few drinks will not judge you, and if they will, hey, they were drunk. Secondly, I suggest taking dancing lessons and going to role-playing conferences, no joke.
Best Wishes
joccis
Wow, it’s everywhere this shyness thing.
Just in case you think your bad, try searching for social anxiety on the internet.
hey that’s some nice advice joccis!
I used to play the piano too, and every time I played in front of an audience it felt terrible. I couldn’t distinguish the keys of the piano because every time I felt dizzy ! What worked for me (mostly in the exams) was convincing my teacher beforehand that I would play REALLY bad because “I am very very nervous and I can’t feel my hands” … When noone expects anything from you, you are free to give the best you can…
anyway.
I m a bit shy, too, although noone can tell really, because when I feel like that I just get very very serious and don’t talk at all. No blushes or anything… That way, I have left behind my a row of girls I liked and never asked them out (girls I knew that could be interested, not complete strangers that I saw on the street) …
Dancing lessons and role playing are two of the things I m thinking of taking up ,although I fear them both. I have been invited to join a role playing group (Vampire) but I felt intimidated because I know I suck big time when it comes to imagining things and acting out fantasies. So I know it would be good for me if I had the guts to go…
Partying, on the other hand, I just don’t like… I m the guy who sits in a corner and eats pizza alone, even if I am among people I relatively know !! (I wouldn’t even consider going to a party consisting of complete strangers)
and a comment on the line
That just isn’t valid. Half of the people that exist are Extroverted. Half of them (well much more than half, I m just trying not to exaggerate) actually like giving something out to people, it’s an opportunity to show their worth. I know for most introverts this is considered stupid show-off vanity, but hey, it’s a big percentage of the population, I don’t think we should believe we are in a position to judge, because that would make us “right” and that just doesn’t exist in these matters… (btw I used to hate Extroverted people, now I m trying to get accustomed to them and their “individuality” 
)
I have met really fat people who are good at something (eg singing) and can’t help singing in front of an audience (with every opportunity they get)
I am not fat and yet I feel so bad about my body that I don’t like going out in the summer. Actually I hate the summer because I can’t enjoy the beach. I used to play the piano and I think (now) that I was good at it (not gifted or anything, just above average) , and yet every time I tried to show-off , every complex I have ever had , decided to emerge and make me feel worthless, ridiculous, vain, an awful pianist etc. I don’t think that this has ever crossed the mind of an extroverted person…
(sorry for the long post, I got carried away 
)
I think that facing your shyness head on is the only way to be rid of it. I know back in the 8th grade I was super shy, I don’t even want to think how much more I’d have been if I didn’t have an extreamly extroverted and loyal best friend like I did, always insisting that I come along. All the classes that made us present material helped out a little as did all the group projects where you couldn’t avoid interacting with the people. Most of all I think it was my drama class and creative writing class that did the trick for me; after a few humorous skits in drama (which had me practically paralized with shyness and talking so fast you’d think I was running an auction) I felt a little less shy just for the fact that I ‘survived’ something that embarased me so much. Then creative writing was so much more freeing than drama, just for the fact that we had so much room to express ourselves and therefore so much more at risk.
It’s kind of strange but I think that the quote of ‘whatever doesn’t kill us makes us stronger’ is dead on. If you can survive it you can deal with it later with less difficulty. And I think that you’d be surprised on how many people consider you a friend - I think sometimes shy people hold a more stringent definition of friendship which only makes it harder to talk to people. I’m just glad that I had drama to force me out of shyness back in 8th grade - by the time I graduated this last May I made a big change and had made friends of most everyone I had in a class in those four years.
Ok, sorry for being long. Just remember that there isn’t really anything to lose by talking to people and showing them who you are; if they don’t like who you are then it’s their loss. As so long as you are happy with who you are it’s all good 
“Better a fool for a moment than foolish for a lifetime.” -unknown
"If a girl comes up to me to talk i say to myself, dont look like an idiot(repeat x 30) "
Set, that may be a big part of wherre your problem is coming from. I have social phobia, I have been diagnosed and therapied and all I can say for the one thing that will abosolutley make my anxiety stop is to STOP CRITISIZING MYSELF. If I go into a situation and I’m watching my every move judging it saying, oh that was so stupid, oh I should say this or that, oh I’m going to panic and then be embarassed when they noticed it makes me panic every time. But if I say to myself “I’m not going to critisize myself even if I have a panic attack or I mess up really baddly. I’ll just do my best and let it be” then I feel relaxed and realize that no one else always knows what to say either. I’m not pretending that it’s easy to start thinking that way but it’s worth a try I think.
You might say, “how can I improve if I don’t critisize myself” but really you can detachedly look at what you did without calling yourself dumb or putting yourself down in any way. Screw what other people think! Because really if you’re too afriad to do anything because you are afraid they wont like you, they won’t even know you at all so you aren’t even giving them the chance to like you. And if someone doesn’t want to be your friend or date you then it doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you at all. It’s just their personal preference. You probably wouldn’t want to date me, but that doesn’t mean that I’m disgusting or anything.
I think we’ve located the problem…Your shyness is the least of your problems when it comes to girls…I believe the medical term is vaginitis…or in layman’s terms being a giant pussy. lol
The bike helmet is not my fault eh? Its illegal for me to go without the damn thing, at least for another 4 days 
As for smiling, who doesn’t smile? Almost everyone smiles back if they dare to make eye contact.
It is illegal not to wear a helmet at your age but do you wanna spend your entire life following the rules? Besides if you have the possibility of getting arrested everytime you ride your bike it’ll make the ride all the more interesting for you. At least you won’t be bored riiight?
Shyness…
I suffer from sevre shyness, well sure around people I know I can be myself because I fell comfortable, but when im around someone I don’t know I become completly mute, I never say a thing.
For instance, in rollcall this really nice girl sits next to me, I never say “Hi” to her, I only say hi when she says hi, I think I never try to talk to people because I think I may interrupt them or bother them, that what I think atleast.
That was me with the beautiful girl that sat infront of me. After 5 months though. . . you should be able to talk to her. . . I was. If I had another 5 months with her I coulda got up the nerve to ask her out. . . . Maybe 
I have never been shy in my entire life, I once played a instrument infront of like, 1000 people, never felt shy… and with girls, im not shy with them either… so you ask yourself “whats this mofo doing here” well, to tell ya the truth, when I started 8th grade, I kinda got this thing they call… uhm… speak anciety something like that, and when I try to talk in front of people (talking in group, etc.) I get the “uncontrollabe shaking and trembling voice” and I think that’s damn embarrasing, and I just can’t get over it… I mean, I can talk infront of my friends, but not infront of, say, a group in school… and this thing pisses me off cuz I know I can do it, but I cant 
anyways I am off to sleep, goodnight all and happy dreaming.
Thats an interesting point. I think shyness and anxiety are different too because I’m not really what I would consider shy but I’m nervous all the time in public.
Also I don’t see what people have against extroverts. And I don’t think that they are jerks just because they aren’t shy. I dont really understand that reasoning.
the idea is, extroverts display an entirely different attitude towards life and society, and THAT’s why most introverts feel scorn for them… Don’t think it doesnt go the other way, too !! Extroverts tend to think introverts “are such a bore” , or that they’re snobbish and elitist etc etc etc…
It’s just this enormous set of differences that makes the two dislike each other. It’s the same with analytical and synthetical minds.I think somewhere in the Keirsey temperament sorter site, or one of the other Typology sorter sites, it is stated that non-analytical minds believe that “abstracts make everything look so complicated” whereas analytical minds think that synthetical minds just can’t follow simple logic…
it’s just a difference in the thought process. The two sets speak a different language and thus believe it’s the OTHER one’s fault that they cannot understand each other.
Completely wrong and stupid, but it’s just the way it is… that’s all.
Another introvert here 
Yes osfranky, “completely wrong and stupid” that’s true for sure.
I remember when I was at school I used to dislike extrovert people very much. However now I see it was me the stupid rather than them. It’s really really idiot to dislike people because just they’re different than us. Luckily not all the extroverts are equally ignorant to “the other side” like I was, actually one of my best friends is an extrovert - though he’s able to watch inside from time to time . Under the surface, all those differences are just like ripples in water. Human stupidity is the art of making problems out of ripples 
.
I am rather introvert, although I am not as shy as some describe themselves.I had more problems speaking to person a few years ago, though.My main “problem” (is it one?) isn´t so much that I am too shy, but that I am simply not skilled (nor interested) in smalltalk.
You know, it´s like “uhm… nice weather… yeah… yesterday it wasn´t as nice… yes…”
I think it is true that the majority of people in here are rather introvert.I once read in a fantasy- forum, and I read a drug-forum.Fantasy was also full of introverts, drugforum is divided into psychedelic-drugusers and “party”-drugusers.There´s definately some link between being intro/extrovert and interests.
Still, on the “all extroverts are stupid” topic, I gotta say that one of my best friends I´d describe as extrovert.Perhaps such friendships are a bit harder to keep up, but it is a good thing since you can learn from each other.
Traumgänger
that it !!! it’s not so much that i’m too shy to talk to someone, it’s that i’ll have nothing to say. and nobody cares about the weather anyway. and if you see a girl and are like “hey, what’s up” “nothing” “you know… i had the coolest LD last night” she’ll probably just think you’re weird, but… i am weird… maybe i should try that hmm…
I must point out here that there are several types of extroverts and introverts. It depends on how they perceive things (abstractly or synthetically) and how they pass judgmenent (values or logic) . Of course this is only one way of categorizing them. I m sure there are zillions of other ways to categorize. Not always a useful thing, may I add.
However, this type of categorisation has the advantage that it helps you actually understand why people do the things they do, the way they do it, and why different people do it with different ways.
One of my best friends (known him for 10 years) is also an extrovert. It is not [b] this [\b] trait that makes him highly incompatible with me, though. It’s that he is a pure Feeler, and he can’t think logically at all. This means, among other things, that he has no strength whatsoever to state his opinion. When I get angry at him, I tend to think that this is because he has no opinion … The fact is that extroverted feelers (not people who feel - that would be stupid- just people who make decisions based on values) most frequent shape their opinions after having heard the opinions of all the people around them (like a mean) . On the other hand introverted thinkers tend to have a very strong argumentation, which is hard to beat. (which is not very good, either, because at the end of the day, and like extroverted feelers, they get opinionated and thus miss the whole point of diversity)
So, it’s not the extroversion which makes the relationship with them all bad. I know an extroverted person who is REALLY compatible with me (like the same music, same books, think exactly the same way,act the same way) , with the difference that he actually LIKES going to parties and feels very confident about his skills. Whereas, I score (NOT) in both things.
If anyone is interested in all this typology thing, say so and I ll search for some good bookmarks to post…
Heck I say, love all people!! Everyone is different and everyone is the same… LOVE THE PEOPLE!!! PEACE ALLLLL!
FLOWER POWER FOR EVER 
& peace
Sorry, but I HAD to post this.Someone else would have anyway, I just wanted to be the first 
Traumgänger