Social Phobia Quotes

“Everybody else possessed the key to popularity and happiness, and his clumsy attempts to find his own key always ended with other children looking at him funny, or calling him names.”
― Belinda Bauer, Rubbernecker

“I'm afraid of them and they don't like me because I'm afraid.”
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

“I wanted to be Feinberg's student, but I didn't know how to go about it. Since it was premature for formal arrangements and since I was naturally reticent and shy, I simply began to greet him very politely whenever our paths crossed. Graduate school was a small community. In corridors and elevators and on campus, I was soon running into Feinberg several times a day, always giving him a polite hello and a nice smile. He would reciprocate similarly with a sort of nervous curling of the lips. As time passed, this limbo of flirtatious foreplay continued unabated. I could never find the courage to broach the question of being his student; I supposed I must have hoped it would just happen wordlessly. Every time I saw him I smiled; every time I smiled he bared his lips back at me with greater awkwardness. Our facial manipulations bore increasingly less resemblance to anything like a real smile; each of our reciprocated gestures was a caricature, a Greek theatrical mask signaling friendliness. One day, on about the fifth intersection of our paths on that particular day, I could stand it no longer. I saw him heading towards me down one of the long dark, old-fashioned Pupin corridors, and immediately turned towards the nearest stairwell and went up one floor to avoid him. Having succeeded at this once, I was compelled to do it repeatedly. Soon I was moving upstairs or downstairs to another floor as soon as I saw him approaching, like the protagonist in some ghastly version of the video game Lode Runner.”
― Emanuel Derman, My Life As A Quant: Reflections On Physics And Finance

“Therefore, while social phobics and patients with AvPD both avoid out of fear, the social phobic’s fears mainly arise in the clinical context of feeling, or actually being called upon to perform in ways ranging from giving a speech to urinating in a public washroom. In contrast the avoidant’s fears generally arise in the context of interpersonal relationships, the main marker I look for in making the diagnosis of AvPD.”
― Martin Kantor, Distancing: Avoidant Personality Disorder

“After all, I'm not a freak; I'm just a girl with a bad case of the worries.”
― Jan Esh & Stephen Nauta, Help! There's a Dragon in My Head

“Lo que menos me gusta es la gente, y lo que más me gusta son las personas (y la yuca, al mismo nivel).”
― Remate

“My dragon doesn't want me to have friends. He tells me shy is good because shy is safe. But being all by myself at recess isn't fun.”
― Jan Esh & Stephen Nauta, Help! There's a Dragon in My Head

“My parents are worried about me, so they take me to a lady, so I can talk about my dragon. She says she knows about dragons like mine. I am hoping for a magic spell or a dragon slayer, with sword in hand. No such luck; just a tiny woman dressed in a short skirt with a lot of pleats and a fancy top with tons of sparkles.
[…]
She looks me in the eye and for some reason I don't feel like I have to look away.”
― Jan Esh & Stephen Nauta, Help! There's a Dragon in My Head

“Do you know my dragon?' I ask.
'I do,' she says, 'and it is time we get him out of your head. He doesn't belong there.”
― Jan Esh & Stephen Nauta, Help! There's a Dragon in My Head

“I am a dragon slayer!' I yell.
My soft-spoken dragon slayer nods her head in my direction.
'Yes you are.”
― Jan Esh & Stephen Nauta, Help! There's a Dragon in My Head

“My dragon makes sure I never have fun. He says the world is an accident waiting to happen.
[…]
I kept feeling like something bad was going to happen.
[…]
So I safely watched from the sideline with my dragon.”
― Jan Esh & Stephen Nauta, Help! There's a Dragon in My Head

“Calculating your BMI is relatively easy: You can visit one of the scores of online BMI calculators, or you can grab a calculator and calculate it on your own. To do so, multiply your weight in pounds by 703. Then divide that twice by your height in inches. For example, if you weigh 200 pounds and are 71 inches tall (five foot eleven), that would be (200 × 703) ÷ 71 ÷ 71 = 27.9, a BMI indicating that you would be, unfortunately, significantly overweight.”
― Michael Greger, How Not to Diet