"Shyness has a strange element of narcissism, a belief that how we look, how we perform, is truly..."

Andre Dubus  (via poivin)

oh my fucking god what a load of ableist bullshit. yeah ok let’s further pathologize those of us with social anxiety by telling us we’re being narcissistic because we’re afraid of interacting with others and afraid of how they’ll react. most of us understand this on an intellectual level. we get that the opinions of most of the people we meet are irrelevant to us and that people who judge us based on our looks or our speech or our ability are Not Nice People. knowing, in this case, is not half the battle. it’s maybe 2.5% of the battle and the rest of it is getting help with overcoming the crushing fear of simple social interactions

Are you fucking kidding me is this person for fucking real?

Here is an article which explains what narcissism actually is and how it differs (greatly) from shyness and introversion.