Made me think of this.

I got so excited about Scientific American running an article about the DSM that I googled until I found this, a book review from the 10/07 Scientific American. If there's a larger article in the mag, I'll let you know if someone doesn't beat me to it http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=FA3DF626-E7F2-99DF-3AE5D8537CA95819&pageNumber=1&catID=2 :

SHYNESS: HOW NORMAL BEHAVIOR BECAME A SICKNESS
by Christopher Lane. Yale University Press, 2007

Would Henry David Thoreau and Emily Dickinson be given drugs today? In the 1980s a small group of leading psychiatrists revised the profession’s diagnostic manual, called the DSM for short, adding social anxiety disorder—aka shyness—and dozens of other new conditions. Christopher Lane, Miller Research Professor at Northwestern University, uses previously secret documents, many from the American Psychiatric Association archives, to support his argument that these decisions were marked by carelessness, pervasive influence from the pharmaceutical industry, academic politics and personal ambition. Lane shows how drug companies seized on the newly minted disorders to sell millions of dollars’ worth of psychotropic drugs. Some have dangerous side effects; some were already developed—treatments looking for a disease. The next revision of the DSM is already under way, and Lane warns that without drastic reform many more common behaviors—excessive shopping, poorly controlled anger, defiance—can become pathologies for which drugs are already on tap

Believe it or not I was considered the shy-quiet girl all of my school years. Until I read something about fear being a form of energy, and how in fact I could channel my shyness[extreme stagefright, extreme inability to speak in front of others,the one hiding behind the notebook in the backrow]into another place, and that was the energy force that I turned around and started public speaking. I've given speeches to many diverse groups, and when I made a comment that I "acted tough" once, someone replied, "Acted?"
Point is, as a mom I raised 3 kids with confidence, no shyness meds--I told them like it was in the real world, that any kid giving the book report either is grateful it's not their turn, or not listening. I also taught them a trick of the mind--to get off the hook for a teacher calling on you raise your hand every time--because they then know "you've got the answer" and won't actually call on you. Teaching kids self confidence is imperative--how the heck does one learn that we are all the same? Paxil and Zoloft--give me a break. Paxil sent my daughter's friend to a psych ward in 5th grade and Zoloft sent her to one in 7th grade. Here's a tip: don't listen to drugging shy kids.

I need to toss one more thing in for thought: my daughter and her friend both saw the same psychiatrist in 1999, one started off as ADHD/social anxiety and one started off as OCD. Both ended up on Depakote/Zyprexa and with a Childhood Bipolar Disorder dx within a year. The OCD>ADHD>Bipolar Child evolution---well let's just say I saw it happen in my own neighborhood back then. Paxil and Zoloft were given to 11 year olds in 1999; both of them became suicidal on those meds. This is dangerous stuff you guys. I really don't want another parent to fall into this trap, I'm a broken record I know--but take it from me the meds were worse than any reason the psych could think of for them to take them. Both of us mothers--we had black skirt/sweater outfits ready for funerals. We thought our kids were going to kill themselves and saw the patterns emerge with medication shifts/additions/removals. I speak from a parental experience, and it was not a good one.I have one thing to say to people[researchers, etc.]try and tell me again how these drugs help. PROVE IT.I call that to the table, because I also see it in kids where I work--meds cause more problems that are needed, and these meds are dangerous to a growing brain.

Mo, I've been reading Harpers since 1987, and I've been thinking of that article since it was printed but haven't seen it in a long time. Thinks for the link.

When I read articles like this, I'm thankful I grew up in the "unenlightened" era before medications and therapy. There are good reasons to be shy. It's a good survival mechanism when you have to deal with loud, obnoxious, stupid people who think racist and sexist jokes are the height of hilarity. Hey, why can't THEY be medicated, huh?

Flower Girl,

It's the loud, obnoxious stupid people who think racist and sexist jokes are the height of hilarity that are doing the medicating.

People who have an interest in always finding signs of insanity in someone else seem to often see the extremely shy as likely candidates. Throughout high school I was always very shy and withdrawn, and an academic underachiever, and halfway through 11th grade they sent me to see the school counselor. I remember walking in and seeing him sitting behind his desk, smiling. The first thing he did upon seeing me (as best as I can remember) was to open one of his desk drawers and pull out a bottle of pills. This was what he had to offer - before he'd even asked me about myself of had any kind of significant conversation with me - and when I said I didn't want the pills the smile disappeared from his face.

I never saw him again after that, but fortunately the school soon thereafter referred me to an after-school group therapy thing they had going on for students who were having trouble fitting in for various different reasons. Those group meetings (I think they were held once a week) turned out to be one of the best things that happened to me that whole school year. It was lucky for me, I think, that that was before the era of mass drugging as the primary solution for all kinds of psychological problems. (It was either late 1970 or early 1971). Things would've probably been much worse for me if I had accepted that bottle of pills.