Posted by KimberlyDi on October 29, 2003, at 15:34:50
In reply to Re: Isn't Social Phobia, just plain old Shyness?, posted by ramsea on October 29, 2003, at 3:04:09
My question wasn't meant as a mocking reply. I've suffered from shyness all my life. Being in the public eye is painful and I start to faint if I have to speak publicly. That's if I'm lucky, rest of the time, mind goes blank and I stutter and look like a lost dunce. I would rather eat veggies than make a speech. Is shyness a fear of the public's opinion? A fear of exposing oneself to rejection of any sort? I don't know but I would like to. I'm not diminishing it by any means.
KDi
> Shyness is not a phobic reaction in itself. Think of people with a phobia to spiders or small, enclosed spaces like closets, and then think of people with a phobic reaction to people. You are talking major, disturbing physiological symptoms that a person has in the presences of other people. Most often there are some people a social phobic is fine around, but situations (like a classroom) or a party, where they simply get ill from being with these people. Since we are social animals, having a social phobia of any kind can be devastating. For a rare group almost all people in almost all situations cause major physiological reactions like racing pulse, inability to breathe properly, stomach turning, sudden explosive diarrhea, sweating profusely, and so on. So the short answer is--social phobia should not by definition be indicating "plain old shyness"---which can be hard enough on shy people in a world that celebrates loud mouthed, joking extroverts
poster:KimberlyDi
thread:273845
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031025/msgs/274708.html