This week the British Psychological Association released an article regarding the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders. DSM-5 will now include disorders such as addiction to the internet, to gambling or have an eccentric personality as medical problems. They will include shyness in children and depression after losing a loved one as mental disorders too. Personally I find this shocking. Being eccentric does not make you mental, it makes you different to the rest of the crowd which is positive. Isn’t shyness in children and feeling depressed after a loss natural? I believe that shyness is the opposite of confident and too much confidence is never good so why categorize shyness as a disorder?
In Van der Molens’ (1990) book he defines shyness. There is no certain definition but behaviourist views shy people as people who have “failed to acquire the social skills necessary for developing relations with others.” Sociologists on the other hand views shyness as a “matter of social programming.” Even though Van der Molen believes that they fail social skills I believe that shyness within childhood is natural as children try to adapt to new situations and people. Not being shy can also be dangerous. Shyness can be a defence mechanism to defend children from uncertain situations such as talking to strangers as well as giving you some time to sense any risks.
Gleitman, Gross and Reisberg (2011) defines the DSM as “the manual that provides specific guidance on how to diagnose each of the nearly 200 psychological disorders.” It is made in the US but is being used my clinicians and researchers across the world.
Many people have disagreed with this announcement such as Peter Kinderman, a member of the BPS. He said that “Many people who are shy, bereaved, eccentric, or have unconventional romantic lives will suddenly find themselves labelled as ‘mentally ill’. This isn’t valid, isn’t true, isn’t humane. And it won’t help decide what help a person needs.” Do you agree with this?
Another examples of recent disorders are Oppositional Defiant Disorder used for disobedient children and Paraphilic Coercive Disorder used for serial rapists and sex abusers. I disagree with labelling these kind of people as it will lead to no prosecution.
Kagan, Reznick and Snidman (1998) researched on 2 year old children which were restraint or spontaneous in unfamiliar situations. When 7 years of age most the restraint children were quiet and avoidance while the spontaneous children were talkative and interactive. Shyness in childhood leads to social avoidance in adulthood. Cheek and Buss (1981) researched into the correlation between shyness and sociability. When the participants self-reported they didn’t believe that their shyness led to low sociability. Further experiments proved that shyness did not mean that their were unsociable even though they talked less and gazed more.
In my opinion, most mental disorders are over-diagnosed. In 1840 there was only one category for mental disorders. In the DSM’s last revision there were 347. (DSM, 2000) Even though shyness in childhood can effect your adult life, it is not always negative and therefore I don’t believe that shyness or many other features in personalities should be classified as disorders.
Cheek, J.M. & Buss, A.H. (1981). Shyness and sociability. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42(2), 330-339.
Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorder: DSM-IV-TR (4th ed.). (2000). USA: American Psychiatric Association.
Gleitman, H., Gross, J. & Reisberg, D. (2011). Psychology. UK: W.W.Norton & Company.
Kagan, J., Reznick, J.S. & Snidman, N. (1998). Biological bases of childhood shyness. Science, 240, 167-171.
Van der Molen, H.T. (1990). Shyness and embarrassment. UK: Cambridge University Press.
meleri 
A very interesting blog full of very good research. I agree with you that mental disorders are being over-diagnosed. In 2008, the National Institute of Mental Health reported that 17 million people are diagnosed with depression each year in America and that 5.2 million adults were diagnosed with bipolar disorder. 1.6 million children were diagnosed with ADD/ADHD. And the adult ADD/ADHD reached 4.1 percent of the population. Obviously over the years mental illnesses has increased due to developments in the field of science and diagnoses- and on one hand this is a very good thing- but as you have noted, it has become too easy to diagnose someone with a mental illness, that leads to over-prescribing of medication which is not necessarily considering the economic climate. In a recent survey- Gallop Youth Survey- 9% of 13-17 year olds reported having medication for depression. The above has been taken from this site:
http://articles.mibba.com/Health/3282/Are-Mental-Illnesses-Being-Over-Diagnosed
I do agree with Peter Kinderman’s view, and your’s that shy children should not be diagnosed as ‘mentally ill,’ however, if you are extremely shy as a youngster, and has carried on the adult life, it is possible to argue that this will lead to many social problems in the future, therefore I believe that it is reasonable to target shyness early in children, to avoid problems in the future- whether to class it as a ‘mental illness’ is another matter. Also- I believe that the DSM-5 including disorders such as addiction to the internet is reasonable. Dr Jerald Block wrote in the American Journal of Psychiatry that addiction to internet is caused by ‘ excessive gaming, viewing online pornography, emailing and text messaging.’ Being on the internet for long periods of time (could be argued as addiction) leads to anger and a tense feeling and this could lead to psychological problems. Also there are many physiological problems to consider with internet addiction- Block noted that that in South Korea 10 people died from blood clots because they stayed seated for long periods in Internet cafes. Therefore I believe that internet is an addiction and should be classed as a Mental Illness by the DSM-5, because it holds psychological and physiological problems, as every other addiction classed in the DSM-5 does e.g. drug addiction.
This is a great link:
Click to access addiction.pdf
Very interesting blog! Sioned 🙂
Very interesting blog, it is obvious that you have researched this topic in grate depth. I read an article titled “Is there an ecological unconscious?” by Daniel B. Smith which he discussed “the possibility of certain mental illnesses having a basis in the ecology of the planet. Terms like “nature-deficit disorder,” “Eco anxiety” and “Eco paralysis” has sprung up in recent years and is used by Eco psychologists to diagnose their patients”.
There’s no question that children these days are being diagnosed with mental illnesses in record numbers. One study published in the Archive of General Psychology found that between 1994 and 1995, just 25 children out of 100,000 left an office visit with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. By 2002 and 2003, that number swelled to 1,003 . Diagnoses of the autism spectrum disorders (ASD) provide another astounding statistic. Prior to 1980, the autism rate was estimated at about four children per 10,000. Although estimates vary, those numbers are now more like 15 to 20 diagnoses per 10,000. If you consider the numbers for the entire spectrum and include Asperger’s syndrome and PDD-NOS (pervasive developmental disorder — not otherwise specified), the stats climb even higher. That number is estimated to be more like 30 to 60 diagnoses per 10,000 children, or about one out every 170 to 330 kids. According to some estimates, it’s as high as one in every 110 [sources: Science-Based Medicine, CDC, Autism Speaks]. You find the same sort of statistical leaps when looking at other mental illnesses such as depression or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Are the occurrences of these mental illnesses truly on the rise; are the kids just being diagnosed in too great of numbers; or do the “mental illnesses” themselves not always need diagnoses in the first place?
A good blog Meleri and also an easy read for all of us! Also this is a topic which we can all relate to as we all have been shy at some point, or have known a shy person. Some people are constantly shy and others are shy in given situations.
I agree with the recent development that disorders are diagnosed a little too much and this is worrying as it can have a negative effect on society in years when everybody thinks they have a disorder of some sort.
Being shy, like you said is exactly the same as being confident, and pepole do not see being over confident as a disorder so I see your viewpoint on why shyness should be one. Many children stuggle with social day-to-day events and will try to stay out of situations and keep out of everything, stand back and take the back seat; this can be seen as shyness but as highlighted above, it could be a deficit of some sort as a child may not be developing as quick as a ‘normal’ child.
I know individuals who are shy and that’s just their personality, but I also know somebody who is so shy it’s a little frightening, and it turned out that as a shy child it’s had an affect on his teenage years where he became so unsociable he wouldn’t say much to anybody – this is concerning but children who are just a little shy shouldn’t be labelled as easily. Some individuals find comfort in being a part of a group but not the outspoken one and is happy enough to join in the banter but not loud or over confident as we say.
A kinds of disorders are given out and new ones are invented surely on a daily basis and this shouldn’t be the case. E.g. if somebody isn’t in a relationship they could develop into being a little saddened, and therefore result in being diagnosed depressed.
Overall, I agree that people are diagnosed easily these days and maybe they shouldn’t be as much.
A very interesting blog about something which I feel is an important issue.
I do agree children, or indeed adults, who have lost a loved one will act differently to their usual selves be it for a short or long period of time, and it is completely rational way of dealing with their loss – not a sign of a mental disorder.
I quite agree that by regarding aspects of behavior as symptoms toward psychological disorders, people who commit serious crimes will not be sentenced because the delinquent behavior will be seen as not their own fault.
In America in particular, individuals on trial will try to plea insanity to try and have a linier sentence. In fact, defendants plea insanity in about 1% of cases, and 35% of those being murder cases.
“Any adult (there are special rules for children) can be involuntarily committed if s/he meets the commitment standard. These standards vary among the states. There is an ongoing and vigorous debate about what standard should be used for commitment.” Mark J. Heyrman Clinical Professor of Law.
The first law of its kind was passed in 1800 – the Criminal Lunatics Act. The law stated that the defendant was acquitted on the grounds of insanity; they would be allowed to go free. However, if the judge felt that the defendant could be a danger to themselves or others, they could be detained in an institution. (Richard, M 1985)
Richard, M. (1981). The origin of insanity as a special verdict: the trial of treason of James Hadfield (1800). Law & Society Review 19 (3). 487-519
The recently added mental disorders to the DSM will mean that thousands of healthy people will be labelled with a mental disorder they do not have. I think diagnosing a shy child as ‘mentally ill’ is ridiculous. I was shy as a youngster and I’m still shy in some situations today. Of course most children are shy at some point in their lives, this does not mean that they are mentally ill. More than 11,000 health professionals have signed a petition for these new mental disorders to be re-thought. Allen Frances, a professor at Duke University said that the revision of the DSM would ‘radically and recklessly expand the boundaries of psychiatry and result in the medicalisation of normality, individual difference, and criminality.’ Another weakness in the revision of the DSM is that it would waste funding on diagnosing and giving medication to people that do not need it, instead of prioritising it to people who really do have a mental illness.
In previous editions of the DSM, it would recognise that a person who has lost a loved one and is experiencing depressive symptoms would be normal, whereas in this new edition it would ignore the death and look only at the symptoms.
I agree with you that giving serial rapists and sex abusers a diagnosis for a mental disorder is wrong as well, as then some of these offenders could easily get away and re-offend by claiming they are mentally ill. Knight (2010) stated that there is little empirical evidence to support the hypothesis that a syndrome where males are sexually aroused by the coercive elements of rape exists.
So i agree with you that mental disorders can be over-diagnosed, and after the publication of the revision of the DSM mental disorders will definitely be over-diagnosed.
And I’m abc here to tell all of you who follow me there, I’d appreciate your input.
This approach wioll have little or no impact as studies show that people with mental illnesses roughly 4, 000 studies at major research institutes
throughout the world.
Wow that was strange. I just wrote an very long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t show up.
Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Anyway, just wanted to say excellent blog!
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