Free Republic

In the midst of promoting three of his latest starring turns, Adam Driver sat for an interview with NPR’s highly influential talk show Fresh Air. But listeners will never hear it. Sources at NPR told The Daily Beast that Driver walked out of an interview earlier this month with Fresh Air host Terry Gross after expressing displeasure at the idea of listening to a clip of himself singing “Being Alive” from the musical Company. Driver’s character sings the song late in Noah Baumbach’s new Netflix film Marriage Story. According to one source, Gross’ team was aware that Driver prefers not...

Shyness, bereavement and eccentric behavior could be classed as a mental illness under new guidelines, leaving millions of people at risk of being diagnosed as having a psychiatric disorder, experts fear. Under changes planned to the diagnosis handbook used by doctors in the US, common behavioral traits are likely to be listed as a mental illness, it was reported. The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of Mental Disorders could also include internet addiction and gambling as a medical problem. … "We need to be very careful before further broadening the boundaries of illness and disorder," Simon...

It can turn anything from job interviews to the most routine of family gatherings into a sweat-inducing ordeal. But a 'love drug' produced naturally by the body during sex and childbirth could offer hope to the millions of people blighted by shyness, scientists have said.Investigators believe oxytocin - a natural hormone that assists childbirth and helps mothers bond with newborn babies - could become a wonder drug for overcoming shyness.  Trials have found that oxytocin can reduce anxiety and ease phobias. Researchers say the hormone offers a possible, safe, alternative to alcohol as a means of overcoming the problem....

THE SOCIETY of Nuclear Medicine has been touting a new study that suggests we're one step closer to solving the riddle of social anxiety disorder. Researchers believe the origins of the disorder are biological. This sounds like a breakthrough worth celebrating. "Social anxiety disorder affects approximately 15 million American adults," the press release declares, and is "the third most common mental disorder in the United States, after depression and alcohol dependence." But what are its symptoms? A "fear of being evaluated by others, with the expectation that such an assessment will be negative and embarrassing." Once you start calling fear...

EVANSTON, Ill. --- What's wrong with being shy, and just when and how did bashfulness and other ordinary human behaviors in children and adults become psychiatric disorders treatable with powerful, potentially dangerous drugs, asks a Northwestern University scholar in a new book that already is creating waves in the mental health community. In “Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness” (Yale University Press, October 2007), Northwestern's Christopher Lane chronicles the “highly unscientific and often arbitrary way” in which widespread revisions were made to “The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” (DSM), a publication known as the bible of psychiatry...

For shy people, academic life is both protective and terrifying. Like many English professors, I enjoy working in libraries, uncovering connections between writers, and opening books that have been closed for a century or more. I can spend whole days alone without feeling particularly lonely. I feel like I have personal friendships with many long-dead authors. I study their books, I read their correspondence, and I handle their personal possessions. Of course, scholarly writing can be tedious, but, for me, even the most difficult writing eases anxiety. Footnotes make life seem orderly and controllable. Like many scholars, I am a...

Shyness linked to brain differences 19:00 19 June 03 NewScientist.com news service A new neuroimaging study provides the strongest evidence to date that unusual shyness in children may result from differences in their brains. Researchers at Harvard Medical School used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine adults who had been unusually shy in childhood. When these people were shown pictures of unfamiliar faces, they displayed significantly higher activity in the amygdala than people who had been unusually outgoing as children. The amygdala is a brain structure involved in vigilance and fear. It has long been hypothesised that extreme shyness,...