(From Clinical Research Unit For Anxiety and Depression).
If you have had generalised social phobia for most of your life you may think that others see you as too quiet or boring. You may avoid meeting other people and not want to risk telling others much about yourself in case they reject you. If you have these sorts of fears, you may have a more severe social phobia, called avoidant personality disorder.
About one-third of people seen at specialist anxiety clinics for treatment of social phobia have avoidant personality disorder. If you have this more severe social phobia, it is very likely that you will have experienced episodes of depression.
Coping with severe social anxiety for most of your life may have badly affected your self esteem. You may also have become quite socially isolated. If you have spent many years avoiding social situations or speaking to certain people because of fears about what others think, you need to be aware that it will probably take longer to improve with treatment.