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health advisory Hospital Mental Health 2007-11-15 19:02:04

that over analyze things?

Answer:

Yeah, it's called Oliver T-itis. I have it bad.

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paranoia.

OCD.

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Social phobia, or social anxiety disorder, is characterized by fear or avoidance of negative evaluation by others. Patients with this condition expect embarrassment or humiliation in a wide range of social encounters. Social phobia may occur in a specific form, with fear of one situation (most often, public speaking), or in a generalized form that is debilitating and chronic.

In large, community-based studies, the lifetime prevalence of social phobia ranges from 7.2% to 9.5%. The disorder is more common in women, normally begins in adolescence or early adulthood, and is characterized by a chronic course. One study suggests that only 30% of patients experience remission.

Persons with social phobia have persistent fear or avoidance of situations in which they expect to be scrutinized by others or to do something that is humiliating or embarrassing. Common examples are public speaking, eating in restaurants, writing in public (e.g., signing checks or sales slips), urinating in public bathrooms, talking with people in authority, or conversing in other situations of scrutiny, such as parties or social gatherings. Generalized social phobia can be very debilitating, because the person has persistent fear of almost any social situation, including speaking to a supervisor or teacher or even a physician, going to parties, or asking for assistance.

Persons with social phobia have a tendency toward negative interpretation of social events, self-focused attention, and negative-outcome-based cognitive processes (e.g., rumination and anticipatory anxiety). They have a memory bias for negative emotions in others' faces and expressions. Normal individuals tend to blame negative social interactions on others while taking credit for positive experiences. Persons with social phobia often reverse this so-called self-serving bias, blaming themselves for negative experiences and crediting others when interactions are positive.

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