Hidden habits that make your social anxiety worse - and how to break them

It was during her teenage years that Mary began to become anxious in social situations. It got so bad she developed depression and had to have time off school.

By the time she started university, she avoided group settings altogether.

"I didn't join clubs and societies like others did," says Mary (not her real name). "I just thought nobody would want to get to know me. I didn't really make a single friend during my whole degree."

Mary's social anxiety was so bad that she was diagnosed as having social anxiety disorder - something that affects up to 12% of people , external at some point in their lives.

But plenty more report struggling more generally. As students return to uni, we asked experts how to overcome these feelings whether in your first, or final year.

Research has suggested more than a fifth of university students face some kind of social anxiety during their studies – and it has been linked to lower grades, poorer relationships and isolation in a study by the universities of Chichester, Coventry and University College London , external .

For many, university marks the first time they have moved out of home – and the expectation is that they will quickly make friends.

Mary, who went to the University of Exeter, says she did try. "When I first got there I went to one society, but everybody was talking to each other and I had a sudden fear come over me. I felt I wouldn't fit in and I went home."