How do you overcome shyness & being nervous a lot??

[Aaliyah]

I have very jittery nerves ever since I was young. It's weird, sometimes I can feel confident and I can talk a lot with new people. Then some days, I can be totally shy,quiet & a little withdrawn. My problem is I'm always over analyzing every move of what I'm doing. Constantly worrying if I'm looking dumb, or sounding crazy when talking to people. My self esteem is pretty low also which maybe the cause of my shyness & second guessing myself. I want to overcome this because I feel like it hinders me from living a happy and productive life. I'm afraid to get involved in activities in school because of it. I'm scared to look for a job which I desperately need but getting a job like a cashier or something that requires me to talk to people & become social scares the crap out of me, so I've been hesitating to look for one. Yesterday my nerves were so bad that when I drove to the hair salon to get my hair done, I basically stayed in the car for about 30 minutes, worried about walking in there with everyone looking at me or dreading having to talk to the lady doing my hair. Is there a way or technique for me to relax more and not to worry so much about what people are thinking?

[ghost69]

interact more. it's the only way. make sure you know your strong points in your personality and know they shine. that will boost you.

[Cuppedia]

Don't let it get any bigger, you have to stop worrying about others and about what you're going to think of yourself if something is not perfect, just go and do the things you want/need and when that little voice in your head tries to prevent you just tell yourself "It doesn't matter, I'm going to do it anyway".

[paranoiac543]

i got much less shy when i started taking antidepressants but you don't sound depressed..so i guess i'm not really much of a help..sorry