Posted by Rick on October 2, 2004, at 0:12:45
In reply to Clonazepam and socialibility, posted by Kon on October 1, 2004, at 22:07:50
> Is it possible that some people here are simply introverted (even with the social anxiety removed)? I know that clonazepam eliminates my social anxiety and I could easily be a social butterfly but in all honesty I prefer to be a bit less social and remain a bit introverted and this has nothing to do with my anxiety but with my core personality, something that I'd rather not change. There are introverted people who do not have SAD. Why shoudn't there be SAD people who are naturally introverted (even when the anxiety is removed)? Maybe I'm the exception?
This is a very interesting point. There are lots of folks out there who confuse introversion, (non-pathological) shyness, discomfort with the opposite sex, etc. as Social Phobia. (Note: I am *not* asserting that this is the situation for any of the posters in this thread.) In fact,the FDA recently took Glaxxo Smith Kline to task for advertising Paxil's use in Social Phobia via a series of vignettes depicting social discomfort and avoidance which fell far short of the truly debilitating and incapacitating mental and physical distress and fear that actually characterizes SP. Regardless, my guess is there are still a lot more people who are unaware that they have SP (or that such a disorder even exists) than there are folks who think they have it but don't.
Specifically to your point about introversion...while most Social Phobics are certainly introverted, I'm sure most introverts aren't Social Phobics.
But my guess is that childhood Social Phobia could play some part in the development of an introverted personality in certain cases, at the very least in terms of bringing out a genetic tendency in that direction. And maybe it could work the other way around, too...being alone too much as a child, and failing to develop social skills, could bring out an innate susceptibility to development of Social Phobia.
The experts sure are just now taking baby steps toward understanding the etiology of Social Phobia, so we're sure not going to solve it here.
But thanks for bringing up some great food for thought.
In case anyone's interested, here's a link to the aforementioned FDA warning letter to Paxil (an 878kb pdf) about the Social Anxiety ad it considered misleading. (It integrates a second, safety-related warning as well). This even includes specific screenshots and dialog transcripts from the commercial in order to make the FDA’s point that Glaxxo is presenting situations that aren’t really indicative of Social Phobia.
Rick
http://www.fda.gov/cder/warn/2004/MACMIS12439.pdf
poster:Rick
thread:396867
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040927/msgs/398139.html