The distinction between shyness and social anxiety disorder is one that matters clinically, though the line between them is not always obvious to the person experiencing it. Shyness is a temperamental trait involving discomfort and hesitancy in social situations that does not significantly impair functioning and does not typically generate the level of anticipatory dread, in-situation distress, and post-event self-critical review that characterizes social anxiety disorder. Social anxiety disorder, by contrast, involves a marked fear of social situations in which scrutiny by others is possible, significant anxiety that is out of proportion to the actual threat, and active avoidance of feared situations or endurance of them with intense distress. The functional impairment, in relationships, professionally, and in daily activities, is what distinguishes the disorder from a personality characteristic.
Dr. Steinbok's clinical assessment at his Boca Raton practice establishes where a patient falls on this spectrum and what the implications are for treatment. Many patients arrive having normalized their social anxiety as simply who they are for so long that the idea it is a treatable condition rather than a fixed trait is itself significant. For patients who recognize that their social discomfort is limiting their life in ways they are not comfortable with, regardless of whether they would apply the clinical label to themselves, the assessment conversation with Dr. Steinbok is a useful first step toward understanding what is driving the pattern and what treatment might involve.
