Fear of Confrontation

[Gorscarrigern]

I am not sure if this is a social phobia. I think it must be. I wondered if anyone had some useful information on overcoming this, maybe a medical name for it so that I can Google something!

My anxiety was aggrevated about five years ago when I accidentally parked in front of somebody's driveway (it happens). The lady wanted to have an argument in the street because she was frustrated but I wouldn't rise to it because it was pointless. She shouted before getting into her car in frustration and her friend with her decided to add her "2 cent" as well as it was clear that I was becoming distressed by the whole thing.
I got very angry with myself afterwards for not just knocking her out or something. I was "scared" for months. I still drove for another month or so after that before I went to university. Since being at university I have been through a number of stressful periods and this seems to have made it all worse. I now have a huge fear of confrontation. I don't like to answer the phone at work in case there is an angry customer. I point blank refuse to drive. If I ever get "told off" at all it makes me extremely upset. I think it is situations when people think I have done something deliberately to upset them. I don't like people thinking badly of me.

Does anybody have any hints or suggestions?

[joey9]

I get this BIG time. It's not even so much if I've done something deliberately but basically if anything is my fault. For me it is the fear of being told off or disapproved of that drives all my episodes of anxiety. I have tried to get to the bottom of it all - i think for me it boils down to an ultimate fear of shame, but I don't know where this comes from as i remember having it all my life. I was the best behaved kid in school because I never wanted to feel bad. I have come to the conclusion that the only way to overcome it it to undergo some kind of desensitisation process but I'm not sure how this is done - I have read you can do it by visualisation but I haven't really found a method yet. It's definately something I need to address if I want to avoid future anxiety episodes.