Well, that's what social anxiety is: anxiety induced by entering social situations.
You have to ask yourself why does it happen. The fact is, you are worried about what people think of you. This is obviously stressful, because we have absolutely no control over what other people think of us. We can try to fit into their image of a likeable person, but this demands of us that we figure out exactly what other people expect of us, while everyone has different and changing expectations.
Some people are good at it... they choose to mold themselves into whatever other people want them to be, and totally deny themselves any sort of selfish ambition. They essentially allow other people to run their lives, with the reward of social status.
I believe social anxiety is caused by a conflict between the expectations other people have of us, and the expectations we have for ourselves. What I mean by this is, when we get into a social situation where we don't want to fit into the image that other people want from us, because it is incompatible with our own egotistical goals, then we sort of lock up, caught between how we want people to see us and how we want to see ourselves.
The answer for living a happy life is self-honesty, first and foremost. Trying to avoid information we have in our brains is only asking for trouble... because when it catches up to you, everything goes to ****.
This means that fitting into the expectations others have for us is absolutely out of the question if it contradicts our own plan for ourselves. You may have to get used to the idea that not everyone will like how you want to live, but guess what... it's a lot easier to be social when you accept the fact that not everyone will like you, because at least you are no longer conflicted.
How do you accept that fact? You have to see the importance of your own life experience. Ask yourself: What do I have to do to be happy? Notice the word "do". The focus is your deliberate actions, and not your circumstances. What do you have to choose to do, and actually accomplish in order to be happy?
The answer will probably demand a lot of time and effort from you... but guess what? If you remember why you're putting the time in, and the imperative to accomplish your goal eventually, every step along the way becomes a reward in itself.
