Many people consider themselves introverts, although in reality they have psychological problems and need the help of a specialist. This article will talk about how to distinguish introversion from social phobia. Let's start with the definitions of what social phobia is and what introversion is. Social phobia is the fear of rejection, fear of negative evaluation, fear of criticism, fear that you will be in a relationship with a person, and he will treat you badly. Social phobia is the fear of one or more social situations, which leads to the avoidance of these situations at the cost of significant destruction of life. Introversion is a behavioral type characterized by the orientation of life towards subjective mental content” (focus on internal mental activity). Now let's talk about the elements of social phobia in detail. 1. Self-imagePeople who suffer from social anxiety have low self-esteem. They consider themselves boring, uninteresting, weak, and ugly. When they do something stupid, they begin to self-flagellate. An introvert may well consider himself good, cool and interesting.2. Image of Others They perceive other people as rejecting, critical, and they expect negative evaluation. Social phobes expect to be treated poorly. Moreover, they ignore all evidence to the contrary. An introvert perceives other people positively. Moreover, introverts actually love to communicate, especially if the topic of conversation interests them. They do not expect to be rejected, humiliated, or ridiculed.3. Hypervigilance A social phobe constantly scans his environment to see if anyone is treating him badly. He spends a colossal amount of energy on this, as a result of which he becomes exhausted. He controls his behavior and makes sure that people do not react negatively. The slightest sign of a change in attitude causes him anxiety. Moreover, when it is not clear how a person treats him, a social phobe tends to perceive the attitude towards himself as bad. When another person really treats you badly, it’s a terrible tragedy for a social phobe, and when a person treats you well, the social phobe doesn’t believe him, doubts him, and looks for a catch. Thus, any option brings him suffering, because he is overly focused on himself and on waiting for the evaluation of other people. An introvert, on the other hand, is relaxed in the presence of other people and does not spend much energy checking their attitude towards him. And even if he is faced with a negative attitude towards himself, he takes it calmly, and does not elevate it to the level of tragedy.4. Avoidance A social phobe avoids social situations. He refuses to attend parties, dates, and perform in public. Some social phobes even cross the road to avoid meeting people. An introvert is open to new experiences. He does not limit himself in social communication. If he wants to attend parties, he goes to them. And even if he does not want to go to the party, this will be due to a lack of desire, and not due to fear of negative evaluation.5. Defensive Behavior Social phobes hide their shame. They hide the signs that they are uncomfortable. They are afraid that someone will see that they are blushing and embarrassed. If only no one would guess how uncomfortable they are in the situation. They may seem very confident from the outside, but this is a mask. In addition, they may use auxiliary things: overpreparing for social interaction, reading from a sheet, speaking quietly, drinking alcohol to relax, etc. Introverts show their true selves and even if they are ashamed, they are not embarrassed to admit it.6. Automatic Negative Thoughts Their automatic thoughts are built on cognitive distortions. 1. Projection – other people think I’m a loser 2. Personalization – the person yawned because I’m boring 3. Expectations and catastrophizing – If I mess up while reading the presentation, people will understand that I am nervous and it will be a complete disaster.4. Requirements - I must be collected, tell a perfect story, make an impression5. Lack of options - There are no options except that other people will judge me.