Yes I think alot of it is people feeling insecure when having conversations as well, but just seeing that they aren't the only ones with those kinds of problems probably is help anyway for some - I know it helped me.
As for the celebrity phobia thing, worrydoll, I think you're right about people who think they have it and then get famous, it's probably not conventional SAD they have. However I think there may be a few who have very specific forms of it. Mine started out specific and at that time there were things I could have done with no irrational feelings that most people here might get. I mean if you love drama and want to be an actress, having a fear of eating or writing in public are unlikely to hold you back (these weren't mine though). Happywannabe, I used to wish I was like famous people too but then I realised that many people deal with problems in different ways and some of them were only in it to boost self-esteem and some seemingly self-assured people are often really very insecure.
There's someone in a band I listen to who performs alot, has a confident, witty persona and is now famous, but (allegedly, I don't know them) sometimes gets panic attacks on stage. It might well be some other problem, but the words and name of a song on their album seem to me only to describe some kind of phobia, and you couldn't make them up without understanding it. Now I mention it, I might put the words up here some time, because I'll bet I'm not the only person here who could relate to them.
Anyway, I would encourage anyone embarrassed to just try writing a reply - people here are very appreciative and nice, and ironically alot of people all feel inferior at the same time! :wink: You can always delete it again if it's as bad as you thought it would be.