Re: Social Anxiety/Shyness

[Guest guest]

I am about to begin doing neurofeedback on a 17 year old with a very mild case of Asperger's, so I have been thinking about social anxiety a lot (this is his main presenting symptom). I have realized that another patient, in his 40's, with social anxiety and a lot of avoidance behaviors also has some Asperger's symptoms, although he had a cerebellar cyst in the right posterior area, and so acquired these symptoms at a later age. The latter patient admits that he never even had thought about looking at someone to "read" their facial expression, and indeed he has almost no eye contact. I have no idea if people with more normal shyness have any trouble with the perception of non-verbal social cues, but I am starting to understand how scary it must be for people who are incapable of using social cues.

I know I'm just rambling, but hopefully my thoughts can be helpful in some way!

Hiatt, Ph.D.

McLean,VA

[Guest guest]

Hey

Question, which came first the shyness or the frontal lobe stuff. In the social anxiety, or social anxiety and depression people I work with (gosh, you just gotta love the DSM IV) I've encountered three trouble spots. Frontal and Parietal (and usually high theta beta ratios lots of places), and the infamous right brain (emotion). If you use the TLC assessment you would probably find either a "filtering" or "processing" (disguised filtering) pattern. Lots of hi-beta activity in the parietal area, and LOTS of deltatheta particularly on task in the frontal lobe.

My take on it is that the brain gets pretty easily overwhelmed particularly with emotion (right side), and is using too much "screening" power in the parietals, that either causes or is caused by the sort of "shut down" (or lack of development) that occurs frontally, when trying to engage in conversation, or respond to quickly shifting environmental stimulation, or any sort of internal representation of a relationship. I think the deal is the anxiety wherever it came from probably interrupted frontal development. I'd train back/right side calming first (midbrain maybe another choice), moving toward the front® then across the front, working on strengthening the orbitofrontal area. Schore says something like, "The orbitofrontal system, which Goleman called "the thinking part of the emotional brain," plays a major role in the internal state of the organism, the temporal organization of behavior, and the appraisal and adjustment or correction of emotional responses that is, affect regulation. In fact, it is one of the few brain regions that is "privy to signals aout virtually any activity taking place in our beings' mind or body at any given time:"

Actually that's exactly what he said (forgive my humor).

Would be interested in your assessment. Good luck,

danielkey@...

www.napeeg.com

HiDoes anyone have suggestion about a protocol for treating social anxiety/phobia /shyness?coming together,maybe comorbid, with ADD in a 46 y old maleIt must have(like anything else) something to do with Brain activity; found in the book :The Shyness & Social Anxiety Workbook :...However,in contrast to the negative results obtained in most biological research on social anxiety, a recent study by Schmidt (1999) found unique patterns of brain electrical activity associated with the personality traits of shyness and sociability. Specifically, shyness and sociability were both associated with specific patterns of electrical activity in the front areas of the brain. The implications of this finding are unclear, and these results remain to be replicated by other researchers, ...I did allready some search on "Schmidt,+..." ,it´s a very common name, maybe anybody knows some details about that study,or where to find it?Regards

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 3/6/2004 12:43:20 PM Eastern Standard Time, marshah@... writes:

Hi ,

Rambling is good-it raises questions that are "outside the box".

I have worked with several Asperger's kids and My almost 17 yr old son was diag. with it 2 yrs ago so I live with it too.

The most helpful approach in dealing with this " absence " of social awareness is to approach it as a "Skill building Regimen".

Just as one is taught the letters of the alphabet, the sounds that letters make, the way they change when other letters are added-it's that basic. Norwicki,Jr's and MarshallP Dukes's book-Helping the child who doesn't fit in" is a good reference guide in this area. Dr.Norwicki even runs a practice where the nonverbal skill building techniques he describes in the book are taught in small classrooms by Teachers. Hope this helps.

I'm just rambling back.

Sincerely

Marsha HIldebrand RN

Marietta, G.A.

GJHiatt@... wrote:

I am about to begin doing neurofeedback on a 17 year old with a very mild case of Asperger's, so I have been thinking about social anxiety a lot (this is his main presenting symptom). I have realized that another patient, in his 40's, with social anxiety and a lot of avoidance behaviors also has some Asperger's symptoms, although he had a cerebellar cyst in the right posterior area, and so acquired these symptoms at a later age. The latter patient admits that he never even had thought about looking at someone to "read" their facial expression, and indeed he has almost no eye contact. I have no idea if people with more normal shyness have any trouble with the perception of non-verbal social cues, but I am starting to understand how scary it must be for people who are incapable of using social cues.

I know I'm just rambling, but hopefully my thoughts can be helpful in some way!

Hiatt, Ph.D.

McLean,VA

Thanks, Marsha!

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

Rambling is good-it raises questions that are "outside the box".

I have worked with several Asperger's kids and My almost 17 yr old son was

diag. with it 2 yrs ago so I live with it too.

The most helpful approach in dealing with this " absence " of social awareness

is to approach it as a "Skill building Regimen".

Just as one is taught the letters of the alphabet, the sounds that letters

make, the way they change when other letters are added-it's that basic.

Norwicki,Jr's and MarshallP Dukes's book-Helping the child who doesn't fit

in" is a good reference guide in this area. Dr.Norwicki even runs a practice

where the nonverbal skill building techniques he describes in the book are

taught in small classrooms by Teachers. Hope this helps.

I'm just rambling back.

Sincerely

Marsha HIldebrand RN

Marietta, G.A.

GJHiatt@... wrote:

I am about to begin doing neurofeedback on a 17 year

old with a very mild case of Asperger's, so I have been thinking about social

anxiety a lot (this is his main presenting symptom). I have realized that

another patient, in his 40's, with social anxiety and a lot of avoidance

behaviors also has some Asperger's symptoms, although he had a cerebellar

cyst in the right posterior area, and so acquired these symptoms at a later

age. The latter patient admits that he never even had thought about looking

at someone to "read" their facial expression, and indeed he has almost no

eye contact. I have no idea if people with more normal shyness have any

trouble with the perception of non-verbal social cues, but I am starting

to understand how scary it must be for people who are incapable of using

social cues.

I know I'm just rambling, but hopefully my thoughts can be helpful in some

way!

Hiatt, Ph.D.

McLean,VA