First thing you should know is that this is the most common anxiety type. It is more common among women than men (ratio of 3:2). The first signs for the disorder appear in childhood, and unfortunately, in many cases it remains undiagnosed, and an unneeded suffering is caused. The damage is being taken to adult's life, and preventing that person achieving his full potential.
Social anxiety, as its name implies, is driven by the fear from public embarrassment and shame, therefore causing hesitation and anxiousness when social situation are expected. People with social anxiety will try to avoid as much as they can from any uncontrolled contact with another person when situation might cause embarrassment.
When experiencing social anxiety the persons' body reacts as if it was facing a true life threatening danger. Biological systems related to fleeting are triggered (pulls rises, blushing, sweating, shacking etc) even a period of time before the forthcoming threatening event.
There are several ways to treat social anxiety. It could be treated by cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT), which is very common used and is very successful. If the anxiety reactions are to strong, making it impossible to gain progress in treatment, medications could also be used. It is important to get this disorder fully treated as if not, it might cause depression and the use of harmful psychoactive substances, or over use of medications in harmful way.
For more information about anxiety symptoms and a new treatment lately developed, refer to http://www.stress-relief.info.ms.