[tvm]

Well, it's more complicated than that. Your hand will start to tremble uncontrollably when someone looks at you. Your face will blush, your legs will start to shake. You might eventually go and vomit. Elevator filled with people is of course extreme case. But I was in the elevator alone. I just couldn't open the doors of the office, take a sit in my corner and greet all these great guys that I've worked with for many years.

I'm not sure what caused that. I've actually acted as a project manager in my early twenties and everything was fine (I could handle meetings and all that idiocy just fine). Then it all went downhill and I can't tell if the onset of these symptoms was gradual (and I was just simply ignoring them) or if they appeared suddenly.

[glasz]

the last sentence is particularely intetesting to me. from the other things you've told i would have thought (and i don't know shit, really, so please bear with me) that the management stuff wasn't really what you loved which you wouldn't realize but subconciously you've got burned out.

but again, i basically have no idea. however, i honestly whish you all the best.

[eivarv]

I know you probably wrote your post in good faith, and you appear sympathetic to the posts you've replied to in this subthread.

I can see how you would jump to the assumption that there is something "wrong" in the person's life, as this is a universal reference point; Something bad happens in your life, and you feel bad about it.

But the fact is that most mental illnesses generally aren't a results of anything like what you've described.

There's no meaning behind them, and they're not rational - which is one of the reasons why they are described as illnesses.

This, in addition to severity, is some of the difference between an anxiety disorder and an anxious mood.

So the assumption made is basically dependent on your healthy perspective, and does not take into account the experience of people affected by mental illness.

If you really don't know much about mental illnesses (as you say in your post) I urge you to try to read up, as ignorance and stigma (which is to some extent a result of the former) are huge problems, even though mental illness is very common and affects around 20% of people, depending in the source (NIMH says 18.6 percent of all U.S. adults had a mental illness the previous year in 2012 [0]).

[0]: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/prevalence/any-men...