When Did Shyness Become Social Anxiety Disorder?

Teenagers have always had it rough. Especially back in the days when it was assumed that all bad behavior should be eradicated by use of severe punishment.

Unfortunately, we still have more than our share of of adults in the South who believe psychological conditions don't exist at all because they aren't mentioned in the Bible.

 

What?!

 

My best friend is the principal of a public school. She could tell you some stories. :dizzy2: :bomb:

 

Aren't those people the exceptions though? I have the suspicion most religious people in the american bible belt do acknowledge the existence of psychological conditions.

 

The only people that I have encountered who deny the existence of mental disorders are people from far corners of the world, who also believe that all negative things that happen to them are a punishment from God. I assumed some such people exist in the United States, but the thought that it is fairly prevalent...hm. I've not spend a lot of time in the so-called Bible belt, so I can't say.

 

Some people just have more tendencies toward shyness and introversion. Everyone is unique with special gifts and I think that's great. I'm, against the notion that there's an idealistic way for everyone to be . It just leads to a society full of clones which is pretty boring imo. Everyone thinks it's better to be outgoing, because that's all that's ever heard from the extroverts who stand up for the way they are. All the introverts are too quiet and don't stand up for introversion.

 

It varies. Remote rural areas and remote small towns are quite different from the urban areas. From the campus of an internationally respected medical research facility such as Duke University or Wake Forest University, you can drive 40 miles and find a tiny church that practices faith healing the same way that they did it 150 years ago.

Probably the most common feeling among rural NC rednecks is that the only legitimate mental or psychological disorders are the ones so severe that the person needs to be confined, and is unable to participate in an ordinary conversation. If you don't fit the classic definition of insanity, you just need to try harder, and get somebody to pray for you.

 

I already mentioned why I don't trust brain scans in a previous post. They are still very new and even the experts have more learning to do about them. And even Healthline admits it's not a proven way to effectively diagnose ADHD. http://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/brain-scans#NEBASystem6 (see bulletpoint 8)

Also those brainscans show certain areas of the brain working more slowly for certain people working on certain tasks. They assume they can safely state that people with slower levels of brain activity have ADHD than those with faster brain activity. What is the task at hand? Is the patient interested in the subject matter, or does it bore them to tears? Did they eat a healthy breakfast and get lots of sleep before the ADHD quiz? There's too many variables to make such blanket generalizations.

Again this doesn't prove you have ADHD. This impulsive decision you made was one experience you had. Not all impulsive decisions are BAD decisions. Throughout my teenage life I was on those medications as I stated earlier and I made my fair share of impulsive decisions. Some of them were mistakes and others worked out for the best. Most of the time teenagers are inexperienced and irresponsible which I think is a far greater factor to their poor judgment than ADHD.

There is a huge spectrum of vague observations that mental health professionals use to label people who don't conform with societal expectations. Psychiatry is a tool for social control.

 

Amazing! How do you suppose someone got the 50,000 plus psychiatrists in the u.s. to go in together on this big social control thing? They must have selected them on their ability to keep a secret.

 

Perhaps. However I can give you an honest review of all the psychotropic drugs I've been put on. I know I cannot attribute all my life's problems to those drugs, but I believe I can safely say they didn't help me much either. I was instructed by my doctor to take these meds every morning and never skip a day. One thing all ADHD medication has in common is appetite loss. Thus I seldom ate breakfast. Medication is no substitute for the most important meal of the day. Adderall felt great one hour after taking it as I could focus all my attention and do really well on any task you put in front of me. The downside was the introversion and the tense feelings I got. Adderall is great for focusing and getting tasks done. But at the end of the high, you have an "adderall hangover" where you feel like a complete zombie. Can't focus, can't think straight, can't exercise or do anything athletic. You just want to lay down and do nothing. I didn't like the come-down so I tried Stratterra. It's not a dexedrine, but and SNRI. I hated it. It's tough to describe the full numbing sensation it gave. Caused insomnia and extreme loss of appetite. Then I tried Vyvanse. It's like adderall without the hangover. That just made me paranoid and anxious all the time. For instance I would get panic stricken very easily if I didn't receive a text or phone-call from someone i was expecting in a timely manner.

If I missed a day of medication, it showed in my performance. I was forgetful, clutzy, and a total space case without them. This really brainwashed me to believing that I was a dysfunctional mess without these drugs. I suspect designer drugs like this are prescribed every single day to the patient for this very reason.

I made the impulsive move to detox and see what would happen. It was like being freed from an internal prison. I was told by doctors, my parents, and countless adults that I could not function in society without these pills. This is why I have bitter resentment for people who blindly trust the medical/pharmacutical establishment, and why I have little to no trust in psychiatry.


To conclude, I don't think dexedrine and anti-depressants are evil for everyone. I'm sure there are people out there who benefit from them much better than I ever did. I believe taking adderall intermittently to focus on certain tasks and getting tedious chores out of the way is fine as long as you don't take it daily and become chemically dependent on it like I did. That's really the best way to take them IMO

 

Thank you. This is exactly the reason why I personally think it should be illegal to put children on corporate drugs like anti-depressants and stimulants. Why is it that health experts say it's harmful to give children coffee, yet they are totally OK with giving children mind-altering uppers that have similar properties as cocaine? They are OK with rolling the dice with a developing mind because the child is "too energetic," "won't sit still," "won't follow the rules," Jesus what a fucked up world we live in.

Those people were seen as odd-balls as children. These people defied the norm and didn't exactly conform to society's expectations. Einstein didn't start talking until he was 5 years old. He developed very slowly, his teachers thought of him as an imbecile who constantly failed. I use him as an example because if he was born in modern times, I'm most certain his teachers and doctors would pressure his parents to put him on medication that could harm a childhood mind.

It seems normal for threads discussions to evolve and change topics over time.

 

Money talks. They have received kickbacks for prescribing medications as I mentioned earlier. LOL it's not so much a secret as it is something they've been brought up to believe that they are really helping people with actual problems. My sister is in her fellowship in psychiatry school and I'm quite aware of the stuff she's studying. I don't think psyichatry is all evil, there's good and evil in every profession. In my profession there are plenty of industrial designers who build and design new products based on planned obsolescence. It's wasteful. Yet at the same time we work to improve technologies and develop more convenient user friendly items.

 

You just described every thing that happens when someone who doesn't have adhd takes adhd meds. Like to a T. The only side effect I ever noticed was appetite loss, something that went away after about a week of taking a pill (although if i stopped taking meds or forgot for a day then i ate everything in sight). I have also been on every adhd med out there, regular and XR. I also no longer take any meds and prefer it that way, but I can definitely see how they would benefit other people.

It sucks because your story really does highlight everything wrong with the psych field in North America. You were diagnosed way too early and in reality you were probably just an energetic child. So shoving pills at you is useless.

 

One of the ways to diagnose ADHD (not the best way) is to give them the meds and see if it makes life better or worse. This is a good way to confirm the original diagnosis.

 

This sounds kind of horrible. I can't really imagine this working in any other scenario.

"Well, it seems like you may have cancer but I can't tell for sure. Here is some chemo, now let's see what happens."

 

Hopefully someday the PET scan technology (or whatever comes next) will become inexpensive and widely available. It's so valuable to make brain activity visible. Of course, there will always be people online saying it's a total fraud, and all the technicians and doctors and researchers and professors are in on the conspiracy.

 

I'd love to have this done, along with a full psych evaluation just to see what I'm dealing with.

I've always had trouble focusing, but I don't know how much of it is due to learning/thinking differently, as well as a host of emotional and environmental obstacles that I've had to overcome that anyone would find distracting. Only once I was single and free of relationship drama, moved into my own apartment where people weren't screaming and throwing things and keeping me up all hours of the night, and was able to move away from and control the comings and goings of people with very poor understanding of other people's boundaries was I able to really start thinking clearly. I was then able to focus, breathe, and start concentrating at work. In that time, I've been promoted three times.

I'm still learning how to control my chaotic thoughts and need for stimulus on my free time so I can actually pick up a hobby and stick with it, but honestly, I feel like I have been conditioned to expect the sky to fall at any second, so it's going to be a long time unlearning it. Is this ADD/ADHD? Maybe in my case it's more a habit to be broken. I don't know if I'm predisposed to it because of my brain activity (which would support that I have a syndrome/brain malfunction that could benefit from medication) or if it's just a pattern I need to adjust.

 

Yes, I mentioned this in another thread awhile ago which if I recall was discussing more possible technologies but I think having some sort of neurological app and/or device similar to personal heart rate monitors, which measure brain activity would be quite amazing.

 

PTSD...post traumatic stress disorder?
Your comment about expecting the sky to fall made me think of it. I have it......and i understand it when I see it in others.

Mine has gotten better and gets better all of the time...but i still expect the worst and imagine the worst always.....hard to imagine something to have a good outcome with this disorder.

 

Your regular doctor may be able to refer you to somebody nearby who has a good reputation. It seems to me that with situations like this, the people who have the most success getting diagnosed and treated are adults who have a strong desire to get better. They will answer the questions honestly and ask the right questions and follow the instructions and get second opinions when needed.

It's much more tricky working with children, but there are kids who really can't concentrate and pay attention, no matter how hard they try. They need help, and teaches and parents aren't qualified to make a medical diagnosis. Professionals have to do it, even though they don't all do a perfect job, because there is no other viable alternative.

ObamaCare now requires all insurance plans to cover mental and psychological health.