Our worrying about what others think of us stems from the fear that we may be bereft of friends or intimacy. This fear can, in some instances, be useful. As I mentioned earlier, embarrassment and shame can motivate us to behave in a more considerate or appropriate manner, increasing the chances that others like us.
Negative experiences.
Children who experience teasing, bullying, rejection, ridicule or humiliation may be more prone to social anxiety disorder. In addition, other negative events in life, such as family conflict, trauma or abuse, may be associated with this disorder.
You know when you feel sure other people are talking about you? You notice them whispering, or looking at you, or studiously not looking at you, and you think, what are they saying about me? Psychologists call those feelings “ideas of reference.” Ideas of reference are often associated with paranoia.
Narcissistic personality disorder is a mental health condition in which people have an unreasonably high sense of their own importance.
In the worst cases, anxiety about the approval of others can blow up into a debilitating fear, a diagnosable psychological condition called “allodoxaphobia.” Even if it doesn't become a mental illness, worrying about the opinions of others can lower your basic competence in ordinary tasks, such as making decisions.
Paranoid personality disorder (PPD) is a mental health condition marked by a pattern of distrust and suspicion of others without adequate reason to be suspicious. People with PPD are always on guard, believing that others are constantly trying to demean, harm or threaten them.
Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a long-term, mental health condition. NPD causes you to think that you are more important than other people.
It's important to note that only a mental health professional can diagnose a mental health condition. Therefore, the only way to receive a definite answer to the question, “Do I have a mental illness, or am I overreacting?”, is to get in touch with a professional at an accredited treatment center.
As social creatures, we focus a lot of our attention on other people and that comes through in what we talk about. So, chances are, people are talking about you behind your back but it's not necessarily a bad thing.
Some call this paranoid, but we all have thoughts like this from time to time. Just because you're worried that people might be talking about you doesn't mean you have a mental illness. Clinical paranoia happens when you're 100% convinced of it, even when facts prove that it isn't true.
Paranoia and anxiety are two separate conditions. Both can cause changes in thinking patterns. Doctors no longer use the term paranoia, referring to the illness as delusional disorder. Symptoms of delusional disorder include hallucinations and mood disturbances, such as feelings of extreme sadness or distress.
Hyper-Rationality is a trauma response and coping strategy. Overthinking, over-analyzing, and over-rationalizing are coping strategies that we learned early on to help us make sense of an unpredictable environment that at some point made us feel unsafe.
Overthinking is caused due to various reasons like fear, intolerance to uncertainty, trauma, or perfectionism. Overthinking can also be a symptom of already existing mental health conditions such as generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety, or depression.
Avoidant Personality Disorder, which includes extreme shyness, feeling inadequate or 'not good enough', and being very sensitive to criticism.
Solipsism as a belief is about the self perceiving the world as what the self believes the world is. Individuals experiencing solipsism syndrome feel reality is not 'real' in the sense of being external to their own minds.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: When Unwanted Thoughts or Repetitive Behaviors Take Over. People who are distressed by recurring, unwanted, and uncontrollable thoughts or who feel driven to repeat specific behaviors may have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
In most cases, feeling afraid of everything indicates a problem with anxiety, and that's all. However, there are instances where feeling afraid of everything could be a sign of a more serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia.
Are you always waiting for disaster to strike or excessively worried about things such as health, money, family, work, or school? If so, you may have a type of anxiety disorder called generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). GAD can make daily life feel like a constant state of worry, fear, and dread.