Shyness may have a negative reputation, but as long as it doesn't overwhelm and prevent individuals from interacting with others even when they desperately want to, it, too, has positive aspects. "If you're a shy person, it's not a personality deficit, it's not a character flaw, it's not a psychological disease -- it's simply a feature of who you are," Carducci says.
Indeed, shy people tend to be very thoughtful about their interactions as well as very self-aware, he explains. It's only when that self-awareness causes individuals to become too "self-focused" that shyness becomes problematic, according to Carducci, who encourages the patients he works with to become "other-focused" instead.