Embarrassment avoidance and social anxiety are the most prevalent, widespread and most crippling diseases of the modern day.
Studies by the National Institute of Mental Health show that around 30% of all U.S. adults will experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their life. Even if we aren’t officially diagnosed with a disorder, we all experience anxiety at one point or another.
In late 2025, I noticed a common phrase popping up in social media comment sections and videos, some people saying, “Embarrassment is an under explored emotion.” The quote came from an interview with American actor Austin Butler on a subway in August 2025.
I didn’t think much of the quote at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it’s 100% correct. Like many others, I made an active effort to keep myself out of situations that would embarrass myself.
Whether it was something small, like avoiding talking to somebody, or something major, like not pursuing job opportunities I wanted, I have my fair share of situations I’ve avoided.
That avoidance personality trait I had seemed harmless for the longest time, but one day I asked myself, “What am I failing to accomplish because I’m so worried about embarrassing myself?”
The average person’s fixed mindset can be attributed to a psychological phenomenon called negativity bias. Everybody has embarrassing moments they just can’t forget, and that’s not coincidence. We tend to remember things that hurt more than things that are happy, so negative interactions are more easily ingrained into our memory.
In an attempt to avoid a similar negative experiences, it’s easier to just avoid it altogether, and that’s where problems start to arise. Rather than facing an issue, we’d rather avoid it altogether, preventing personal growth and losing opportunities that you want.
This avoidance issue is not only harmful to the individual, but it plagues society by encouraging people to avoid important discussions out of fear of making somebody uncomfortable. In a recent article I wrote, I mentioned that people will avoid talking about political issues for fear of offending someone or being alienated from their peers.
Dismissing issues isn’t a healthy way to deal with them, and it not only affects you individually. Even though this issue has been a plague to society, in 2026, I feel optimistic about the future.
More people are having the realization that personal growth and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone are important. The previously mentioned quote of, “Embarrassment is an under explored emotion,” is not only a good acknowledgement of the issue, it’s also a good first step in the right direction.
The next step is to visualize what you realize, and be aware of what you’re anxious about. That’s half the battle. It’s easier said than done, but pushing yourself to do things that you know you’re scared or embarrassed of is the most crucial step in defeating embarrassment avoidance.
I’ve always struggled with being social, and to combat that, I pushed myself to an extreme level of discomfort by putting myself in situations that require me to be social.
At the start of 2026, I decided that I wanted to travel, and by going to places where I didn’t know the language and didn’t know the culture, I forced myself to rely on the kindness of strangers to get by.
A specific instance of overcoming my fear is when I was trying to figure out how to get to the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival in Taiwan. Uber drivers weren’t able to make it all the way to the festival due to road closures, so I had to get instructions on public shuttles that were making their way out to the lantern release location.
While facing my fear of embarrassing myself while trying to communicate with somebody who barely spoke the same language as me, I had an amazing interaction I never would have had if I had simply taken an Uber all the way there.
The best part of pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone is that once you’ve done it once, you’ve proven to yourself that you can do it. At the end of the day, life is too short to live with the fear of embarrassment.
