Is There an Official Name for a Mental Illness That People Generally Just Say Is “Painfully Shy”?
Question by maggie_pfob: Is there an official name for a mental illness that people generally just say is “painfully shy”?
I grew up with a young woman who was, well, just a little odd. At least, that’s what people said. Nice people did, anyway. Most of the apes we went to high-school with said she was effing weird, and made her the target of their own personal insecurities and tormented her mercilessly. Now: she was not “slow” – in fact she was quite smart. Just that… well, she didn’t know how to act. And, she would utterly collapse in the face of any sort of confrontational situation. I was the one who was always sheilding her and protecting her all through high-school.
Her family was a perfectly normal couple – when I was a teen I turned to them for a place to feel safe and loved when I was going through “teen stuff,” so, they can’t be the “source” of her “differentness.” I’m sure her disorder is organic. In fact recently I’ve had it pointed out to me that certain body movements are an indicator of mental illness and I was all “OMG that’s just how ‘Mary’ walked!” The concept of “autism” came out about a decade after she and I survived high-school, and in fact she was once concerned that she might be high-functioning autistic, because she is so smart. But, somehow, the sypmptoms didn’t seem to fit. I’ve met a lot of autistic people since then and she is nothing like them. Also she is very outgoing and caring about other people, so that doesn’t fit the whole autism scenario, either.
Her main symptom is that she will collapse into jelly if put into a confrontational situation. She also walks really “funny,” but not because of any motor impairment. It’s purely a behavior. The kind of walk film-makers use to show that someone is “a bit titched,” only, she does it for real, and doesn’t realize she’s doing anything different. She could never hold a job because, should her boss or a customer yell at her, she would end up in a hospital needing sedation. Yet, she’s able to cook and clean and take care of herself, so she can’t legally (or according to insurance policies) be institutionalized. She has NO delusions or anything like that. She’s a Good Person, kind and outgoing and very intelligent, yet… something is missing – something which affects her ability to manage in the real world. Currently she lives with a mentally ill (paranoid schizophrenic – officially diagnosed and therefore receiving disability income) husband and attends adult day care counselling therapy sesssions, but, in her socioeconomic bracket, that is probably as advanced as her diagnosis or level of care will ever get.
My question is: I have never, ever seen or heard of a “Diagnosis” for a person like this, nor have I ever met another person who is anything like this. Is there a name for what she has, or is she just…something totally unique? I guess all I’m really looking for is a Label. Which, I guess, is fundamentally wrong anyway. But the question bugs me sometimes. Anyone out there ever meet anyone like this, and have they ever heard of a name for this sort of disorder?
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