Love-shyness: Encyclopedia II - Love-shyness - Love-shyness and mental disorders

Love-shyness - Love-shyness and mental disorders

Love-shyness is not recognized as a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association. It does share some characteristics with commonly recognized mental disorders, however. Like people who are afflicted with an avoidant personality disorder, love-shy people feel uncomfortable in many informal social situations, and typically avoid opportunities for social contact. Their impairment of functioning in social interactions bears some similarities to the symptoms of Asperger's syndrome. For example, like people who have Asperger's syndrome, love-shy men often do not develop peer relationships. Like people who have a specific social phobia, love-shy people can be very anxious in informal social situations.

Arguably, love-shyness as described by Gilmartin is not a mental disorder. It can be seen as a pattern of failure in intimate relationships that is exhibited by socially inhibited men who may or may not have a mental disorder.

Other notable findings by Gilmartin:

• Love-shy men often suffer more allergies and headcolds than non-shy men
• Many love-shy men feel women are more privileged than men
• Love-shy men tend to be less interested in sports
• Love-shy men tend to be more interested in movies, and prefer watching different types of movies to non-love-shy men
• Love-shy men place great, often disproportionate importance on physical beauty (especially facial beauty)
• They are not as likely to be interested in male friendships
• They develop interest in females at an earlier age than usual
• A surprisingly high number of love-shy men surveyed said that if they were to have children, they would only want to have daughters, not sons
• Many autistic men are also love-shy
• People who are love-shy are generally embarassed when rejected by the one they want.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Love-shyness and mental disorders", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki