Is it just me taking it too seriously due to my paranoia?

Hello.

I am writing because something weird happened today that won’t get out of my mind. I visited a bookstore to download and print a couple of documents and told the workers I had to send the documents to them via Dropbox to their email account. However, it took them about 25 minutes to mange and download them. Long story short.. there was a tech guy and a lady assisting me however at some point as she goes near him as he works on his computer they both laughed for a couple seconds (100% about me) then the guy kept saying Dropbox all the time in a funny way and he was saying my name plenty and plenty of times after finding out my name through my email.. he would go like “Tom Tom Tom” and I really felt I was treated in a bad way.. how could this be ?

Btw.. my paranoia is fear of people making fun of me or my looks and probably most of the time my awkwardness!

Any comments would be highly appreciated guys!!

Have you tried imagining the situaion like this;

They did laugh at you, but they're the douches/loosers for having to laugh at a random customer to feel good?

Honestly, if the scenario went as you described - although I doubt anyone would actually laugh at the word "Dropbox" " - it, they're in the wrong, not you at all.

It's possible but I've found my own thoughts to hinge very much on a kind of black or white thinking, that if they are making fun of me it's some evidence I am uniquely aggrieved and/or unworthy, unlovable, etc. and not that people are just occasionally rude and nasty. I try to think more of, what's the worst case scenario? They were laughing at me because they were being mocking or derisive. Okay, then what? Some people are rude and get their jollies from being mean. That still doesn't mean you're defective, deficient, being stalked, being watched, etc. etc. just that two people out of the many people who were probably decent, nonjudgmental and maybe even compassionate to you that day, weren't.

And that's the worst case scenario! It's probably equally as likely they were laughing about something they chatted about last week or something. I also find that writing down my specific concern and all of the "evidence" I have helps so that I don't feel I need to continue ruminating over it nonstop. Maybe that could help you?

i know where you are coming from. I doubt they were talking about you, but if their worlds were to be that small and petty, well, that would be their problem, not yours. I have a crippling avoidance issue, but I am 39 years old, so over time I have learnt that rude and nasty people are generally disliked by many people around them, even if it may not look that way in how others react to them. The vast People around them are generally just trying to get on with their lives with as little conflict as possible; and are very sensitive and caring also. There are a handful of bad apples in this world: Sociopaths, Psychopaths and other people with big problems of their own that may cause them to act like jerks.
But you shouldn't feel like your doing something wrong for having worrying thought such as this. Remember, the bad ones, who do the real damage to those around them, don't even care what people around them think or feel; so you have an excess of the good stuff in humans.
Maybe CBT training would help you understand how to filter out the negative thoughts.
Best.

Have you ever confronted someone who you believe is making fun of you?

I don't mean in an aggressive way. You have to sort of calm down first and work out a little speech.

I'm dreadfully paranoid but I'm also convinced that I'm right and that the matter needs to be dealt with. So I say something.

Like the other week in work I was convinced that whenever I went to the other end of the room everyone went quiet and was staring at me. So the next time I went down there I said (so I could be heard) "it's like the world stops when I come down hear, like everyone's expecting me to make a really important announcement".

It hasn't happened since.

Maybe that was the announcement they was expecting.