For those of us crippled by panic and social anxiety:
NO ONE CARES.
Let me explain what I mean by outlining just one common
scenario:
Walking into a room and feeling all eyes are on you.
NO ONE CARES.
At the very least, not as much as you do.
For you, this is a life or death situation. For the others,
they barely know you exist, apart from as a breathing blob of humanoid that
happens to be in the vicinity.
Each is lost in their own thoughts: whether their wife has
asked them to get milk or bread on the way home, feeling tired because of a
crappy day at work, feeling slightly off because they ate too much at lunch,
feeling hungry because they skipped lunch, or mentally daydreaming about what
they're going to be doing next weekend.
Just as you are wrapped up in your little world, so too is
everyone else. They know nothing about you - and they won't care to know unless
it directly affects them.
This may seem like a cold, cynical way of thinking, but I see
it more as a splash of cold water to the face for anxious.
To allow yourself to be controlled by panic in this way is
to assume that you are more important than everyone else.
What do you think?