Social anxiety is a silent killer. 

It saps the joy out of social interactions and makes even the most everyday interaction a nightmare. 

People with social anxiety develop ways to hide what they’re feeling but if you look closely you’ll notice these giveaway clues that they’re struggling. 

1) Declining invitations 

Socially anxious people are uncomfortable in social situations and interactions.

This can be among those they know well, not only among strangers or large crowds. 

As a result of this, those struggling with social anxiety tend to self-isolate and turn down social invitations of any kind. 

Declining invitations is the first big clue that a person is grappling with serious social anxiety issues. 

2) Fidgeting and shuffling

Not every invitation and social situation is possible to turn down, especially things like weddings, funerals, graduation ceremonies, training courses and work events. 

Socially anxious people thus usually have to show up at least now and then to things they don’t want to show up at. 

This is when the next of the clues come into play.

At the top of things to watch for is fidgeting and shuffling. 

Nervous shuffling and standing in an unbalanced way, leaning on nearby furniture or against the wall, fidgeting their hands and doing odd things like frequently cracking their neck or stretching are all signs of real social anxiety. 

3) Stilted and awkward body language

Awkward and stilted body language in general is often a sign of low-confidence and social anxiety. 

Things to watch for here include the fidgeting and shuffling I mentioned above as well as things like: 

• Pointing their toes together
• Leaning away from those close to them
• Pointing their feet away from the person they’re speaking to 
• Standing with a slumped or “defeated” looking posture.

And then we come to another important indicator of strong social anxiety: 

4) Avoiding eye contact

Eye contact is one of the most basic features of communication. 

From the animal kingdom all the way up to human beings, making eye contact is a way of confirming one’s presence and standing behind it. 

Avoidance of eye contact is usually an indicator of low self-esteem, guilt, shame, fear or malice. 

In fact, part of why our eyes evolved to have a white area around the pupils was in order for other people to see what exactly we were looking at and judge whether or not we were a threat to their interests. 

Those with less focused eyes got killed off for the most part, since rival tribesmen had difficulty seeing if they were trying to steal their woman or just eyeing a faroff bison. 

That’s why avoiding eye contact is one of the strongest warning signs that sets off alarm bells for others that somebody is not sure of themselves or trustworthy. 

Unfortunately, it’s one of the most common behaviors of a person struggling with social anxiety for the simple reason that they feel if they just avoid eye contact they can avoid social interactions. 

5) Stuttering and mumbling

When it comes to speech, socially anxious people struggle a lot as well. 

Giveaway clues of social anxiety include stuttering and mumbling. 

Of course we need to keep in mind that some folks have speech impediments and issues that have nothing to do with their psychological state. 

But for others, having difficulty speaking can be a classic sign of social anxiety. 

They feel nervous so they start talking and their larynx gets locked up like a bank vault and out comes a croak or an awkward sound of some kind. 

6) Talking nonsense 

It’s not only phonetically that socially anxiois people have difficulty with speaking. 

It’s also in the words themselves. 

There are times in the past when I struggled with social anxiety, particularly around women I liked, and I remember saying things that made basically no sense. 

I don’t mean random combinations of words, although it can get to this level for some folks. 

It’s more likely to be something like repeating something which was just said or asking a question that comes out of left field. 

For example, while talking about your class schedules at university and the conversation reaching a lull, you suddenly ask “what’s your favorite city?”

Awkward. 

What does somebody’s favorite city have to do with their class schedule?

Social anxiety can make it difficult to bridge into new topics in a conversation and to link ideas and concepts when talking. 

The result can be kind of embarrassing and humiliating which feeds directly into the loop lead that leads socially anxious people into self-isolating.