Red Face by Russell Norris is a memoir of living with social anxiety disorder—with a twist. The red face of the title comes from a condition the author has called idiopathic craniofacial erythema, which produces intense and often unprovoked facial blushing. He also developed erythrophobia, where blushing itself becomes a source of fear. It sounds …
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is shy bladder syndrome, also known as paruresis. Shy bladder syndrome, or paruresis, involves difficulty urinating in public settings due to fear of perceived scrutiny when others are present or anticipated to be present soon. It actually falls …
Introversion, shyness, and social anxiety can sometimes get mixed up and confused for one another, but they’re actually three distinct concepts. In this post, we’ll look at some of the similarities and differences. The relevant constructs Psychological constructs are representations of intangible thing that gives us a way to talk about those things and distinguish …
Introversion, Shyness & Social Anxiety: What’s the Difference? Read More »
In this post, I’ll take a look at some of the available guidelines for evidence-based treatment of anxiety disorders. While psychotherapies are extremely important in the management of anxiety disorders, this post will focus only on anti-anxiety medications. The treatment guidelines I refer to come from the British Association for Psychopharmacology and the World Federation …
Evidence-Based Treatment Guidelines for Anxiety Disorders Read More »
Mental illness stigma comes from many places and in many forms. Stigma often invalidates the experience of those of us with mental illness. One way this can happen is by pathologizing normal human experiences. By this, I mean inflating the significance of “normal” emotions and minimizing the significance of mental illness to make it seems …
Mental Illness Stigma and Pathologizing Normal Experiences Read More »
