John R. Marshall, Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UCLA School of Medicine, is one of the pioneers in using medication to deal with social fear. In his book, Social Phobia. From Shyness to Stage Fright, he divides it into two categories, specific and generalised. Some people fear situations that may involve any type of criticism, including small everyday activities in the presence of others such as shopping, posting a letter, or dining in a café. I have met people who find going for a walk in an urban area a torture, because they feel conspicuous and exposed. They are acutely conscious that people are staring at them and commenting on them and they feel terrified and paralyzed as they walk with head bowed. Even shopping is torturous. They stand dumbly at the counter and are unable to make eye contact with the shop attendant and at the same time are intensely conscious of other shoppers. This hell is generalized social fear, since it pervades most areas of your life, where you strive to be more than human, where you are in the grip of perfectionism to avoid shame, where your boundaries are very defective as you strive to please everyone. You take in the feelings of other people very easily, and fear that the simplest of actions such as asking the price of some item will arouse their hostility and they will judge you as awkward. This generalized social fear is more crippling than the fear of specific circumstances.
Extract from my recent book – Understanding and Healing the Hurts of Childhood.
THERAPISTS IN TIPPERARY
PSYCHOTHERAPISTS IN TIPPERARY
COUNSELLING TIPPERARY
DEATH OF A CHILD
ABUSE AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
FEAR
ANGER
JEALOUSY
SHAME
I am the author of six books
When a Child Dies. Footsteps of a Grieving Family
Abuse. Domestic Violence, Workplace and School Bullying
Understanding and Healing the Hurts of Childhood.
I’ll Meet You at the Roundy O
Priest, Politics and Society in Post Famine Ireland 1850-1891
Prince of Swindlers. John Sadleir MP 1813-1856
I am currently writing a major work on DID (Multiple Personality Disorder)
