By Ron Pies, MD: You always hated it when the teacher called on you in class. Even now, you get those big, fluttering “butterflies” in your stomach before making a speech. You stay away from parties because you feel a little self-conscious around people. Your mom always described you as “shy” and you admit you’re a bit of a “wallflower”. So do you qualify as having a diagnosable mental disorder? Unless there’s much more to your story, the answer is no.

New research by the HealthEmotions Research Institute and Department of Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health indicates that the brains of those suffering from anxiety and severe shyness in social situations consistently respond more strongly to stress, and show signs of being anxious even in situations that others find safe.

"Oxytocin has a very powerful effect," says Dr. Baumgartner of the University of Zurich. Oxytocin lowers activity in the amygdala, a region linked with fear and danger. The same brain circuits play a role in social disorders. Most social phobia sufferers receive talk therapy of some kind but recent studies have shown that oxytocin can speed up the process.

It may seem baffling, even bizarre, that ordinary shyness could assume the dimension of a mental disease. But if a youngster is reserved, the odds are high that a psychiatrist will diagnose social anxiety disorder and recommend treatment.

What's wrong with being shy, and just when and how did bashfulness and other ordinary human behaviors in children and adults become psychiatric disorders treatable with powerful, potentially dangerous drugs, asks a Northwestern University scholar in a new book that already is creating waves in the mental health community.

Shyness, social anxiety, social phobia, introversion - one of the problems in using these labels about ourselves is they are often too unspecific and relative: shy compared with whom? How anxious, for how long, in what situations?

Social Anxiety Disorder is a crippling disease.  Those afflicted have debilitating panic attacks, racing heart, disorganized thoughts, fear of dying, losing control or fainting, embarrassing tremors and feel frantic in social situations.

It's no secret that alcohol use is alive and well on college campuses across America. New research studies investigate a largely unexplored area -- the relationship between heavy drinking and social anxiety.

By Anna Buckley, BBC News -- Most of us are shy to some degree, but acute shyness is one of the most under-recognised mental health problems of the modern age, say some. So when is being shy an illness?