In the Sunday Times article Love shyness: the 'condition' crippling men, Amy Turner tells the story of a quiet minority of men who are too anxious to find love. As part of the article, Turner interviewed John and Neil, twenty-something seemingly average guys except for one little secret: neither has ever had a girlfriend or been intimate with a woman. Like many love-shy men, they frequent the forums at Love-Shy.com in search of hope.
According to American professor Brian Gilmartin, "Love Shyness" (LS) is a diagnosable and treatable disorder that has yet to be recognized by the medical community. Based on his research, 1.7 million American men suffer with this condition - that's around 1.5 percent of the male population.
Is love-shyness really a disorder, or is it simply one manifestation of social anxiety disorder (SAD)? Most likely love shyness has its roots in SAD, however it is easy to see that treatment for this problem may involve more than CBT or medication. Those with longstanding social anxiety often need social skills training to play catch up. Perhaps what the love-shy need is a little bit of love-skills training.
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