Posted by sleepygirl on December 20, 2005, at 12:59:09
In reply to Am I paranoid? Or just self-absorbed?, posted by med_empowered on December 20, 2005, at 6:25:49
I think people are talking about me too... I know it's irrational, but I can't seem to help it. Would an atypical really help that?? Well seroquel (the only atypical I have tried) has blunted a good deal of my anxiety (and the rest of me too), but I don't know that it has touched this
> This didn't happen to me until high school. I used to be able to just sit, oblivious to other people. Then I became the school outcast. Kids would talk about me--teachers would talk about me. I developed a weird nervous tick b/c of my social anxiety; kids noticed it, and thought I was "crazy". I'd hear people behind me and around me talking about me sometimes during class (I know this sounds nuts, but it is what happened--I became the crazy-in-residence at my high school...teachers would always come up to me to express their "concern" and ask if I "wanted to talk").Oh geez....that sounds tough, and like it made the social anxiety a lot worse, it sort of fed the idea of yourself as an "outcast". Maybe you've gotten "used to" feeling yourself in that role (not that you've wanted to). I sort of feel like people "know" what a real freak I am, so I spend a lot of time feeling like they are talking about me.
It sounds like your anxiety has a real obsessive quality to it, and body dysmorphia sounds appropriate. It's hard to say where anxiety and obsessions become "psychotic" if that is part of your question. Besides whatever meds may or may not be appropriate CBT does sound promising. You need some relief. I think you've both learned to be tremendously self conscious and became that by virtue of your biochemistry.
I hope you find some answers.
-all the best,
sleepygirl
poster:sleepygirl
thread:590603
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051211/msgs/590680.html