iranon
01-26-2009, 04:28 AM
Hi everyone..
A few years back I was diagnosed with social anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, depression, and some signs of schizophrenia. Anyway, I used to have all the classic signs of social anxiety, and I still get those often but not as severe & I have improved.
Without going into all the many different aspects of how my disorder affects me, I just wanted to bring up one thing that I experience that seems a little strange and not something I have found anyone else to be able to relate to...
Basically, I have this irrational "fear" of becoming a regular and being recognized as a regular in any store or place. I like to buy a coffee every morning but I find it very difficult at times to visit the same cafe because I feel extremely uneasy about the whole situation. I don't worry about it because I feel I will be criticized or anything like that, it's difficult to explain. It just makes me feel very anxious, and so I just end up avoiding an area until i feel like significant time has passed that I can go back again. I did push myself through this situation before and I became comfortable with being a regular, but the store closed down over Xmas and since they have returned, I have been unable to bring myself to go back there.
If anyone can offer me any kind of info/help on what this is all about, I would be really grateful.
A few years back I was diagnosed with social anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, depression, and some signs of schizophrenia. Anyway, I used to have all the classic signs of social anxiety, and I still get those often but not as severe & I have improved.
Without going into all the many different aspects of how my disorder affects me, I just wanted to bring up one thing that I experience that seems a little strange and not something I have found anyone else to be able to relate to...
Basically, I have this irrational "fear" of becoming a regular and being recognized as a regular in any store or place. I like to buy a coffee every morning but I find it very difficult at times to visit the same cafe because I feel extremely uneasy about the whole situation. I don't worry about it because I feel I will be criticized or anything like that, it's difficult to explain. It just makes me feel very anxious, and so I just end up avoiding an area until i feel like significant time has passed that I can go back again. I did push myself through this situation before and I became comfortable with being a regular, but the store closed down over Xmas and since they have returned, I have been unable to bring myself to go back there.
If anyone can offer me any kind of info/help on what this is all about, I would be really grateful.