Diagnosing Shyness
Diagnosing
Shyness is made possible by
behavioral observation
and some
signs showen by the person (example: the child
who hides his face when in front of strangers) and/or
by information given by the person (example: report of
hand tremor when speaking in public). Shyness has
some characteristics: it happens when there is contact
with another person; when the shy person
performs something (
speaking, writing, singing, or interacting), there is a
feeling
of apprehension; the spontaneity
is compromised.
These patterns can, then, appear in many, many situations,
but some of them are more common: speaking in public
and initiating contact with the opposite sex. In certain
cases, paradoxically, the person can be spontaneous
out of the house and
shy with some family members.
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You will enjoy this
psychological suspense
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The diagnosis of Shyness may vary from one
professional
to another, as a result of the great subjectivity
in the evaluation of the information that is given.
So, a professional can judge a person to be a sufferer of Shyness, and another professional can judge him to be a sufferer of Social Anxiety Disorder / Social Phobia. A person can be diagnosed as moderately shy by one professional and as very shy by another. There are even more complicated problems in diagnosis.
The variation from one professional to another cannot
only be related to the grade or intensity of Shyness,
but also to the diagnosis itself. Some professional
do not differentiate Shyness from
Social Anxiety Disorder all people who feel bad or constrained in the presence of others can be considered
sufferers of Shyness
or Social Anxiety Disorder / Social Phobia. For these professionals, the signs
and
symptoms will determine only the degree. For example,
the diagnosis can be of light Shyness, moderate Shyness, or severe Shyness; or light Social Anxiety Disorder, moderate Social Anxiety Disorder, or severe Social Phobia. On the other hand, many professionals make a distinction between Shyness and Social Anxiety Disorder; that is, they consider that Shyness and Social Anxiety Disorder are different things. The author of this website is included in this group.
Criteria for Diagnosing
Shyness is not a medical diagnosis; in other words,
it is not a
mental disorder. As it is described in
this site, it does not fit in the diagnosis of
Social Anxiety Disorder / Social Phobia
of the
International Disease Classification ,
10th Edition, by the World Health Organization,
or in
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders, 4th Edition, by the American
Psychiatric Association.
To make this distinction it is necessary to use some
criteria. The first one is to exclude all the disorders
in which the expression Phobia is applied.
.
| Phobia is the irrational
and persistent fear of a situation, object or
activity, and that generate an intense desire
to avoid them. This leads the individual to face
the situation, object or activity with much more
fear or to avoid them. |
If the individual presents
irrational
fear during
social performing, but does not desire to avoid
social situation, does not have great suffering (the
anxiety is
not high) and there is no significant personal prejudice,
she is a sufferer of Shyness. In other words, one
can say that the anxiety of such an individual in these
situations is light or moderate, even when perceived
by him orher and/or by others. The diagnosis then is
Shyness.
However, as the
psychological processes of Shyness
and Social Anxiety Disorder are similar, one can foresee a continuum
of the anxiety that goes from a very light degree
to
panic . At any point of this continuum anxiety can
stop being a characteristic of
Shyness and become a characteristic
of Social Anxiety Disorder / Social Phobia.
Other criteria used in diagnosis of Social Anxiety Disorder
can, by extension, be applied to Shyness once the
process is very similar. The person perceives the
inadequacy of his fear (this is not required when
he is a child). The diagnosis in children and teens
must only be made if the signs and symptoms persevere
for at least six months. One must register the social
situations in which the anxiety occurs, as well their
number: whether in two or more (it is unusual for it to occur in only one situation). It is necessary to observe if Shyness results from some transitory medical or social conditions - for example, the teen whose parents are in the process of separating or who has a member of the family in jail. Thus, above all, it is from the information given that one makes the diagnosis of Shyness.
Is
Shyness Fear or Anxiety?
Shyness: Questions and Answers
Self-actualization
and Self-concept: Nucleus of Shyness and Social Anxiety
Disorder
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