lyssanmania – n. the irrational fear that someone you know is angry at you, that as soon as you wander into the room, you’ll be faced with a barrage of questions that gradually escalates into a frenzy of outrage, for reasons that you don’t understand.
When I work with teenagers, I see lyssamania a lot. They often assign feelings and reactions to people before any situation occurs. They’ll assume others will react in some way without really thinking things through.
We know what assume means.
I’ve often felt this is am immature view of a situation that teenagers have, except that I see the same thing in business.
I have experienced this myself, though usually I have some idea of why a person might be upset. Usually I think I’ve offended someone, or I assume I have. Not always, and sometimes I have a variation of lyssamania with some idea of why there would be outrage.
Hopefully you don’t feel this, but if you do, get some counseling as this shouldn’t be your default view.
From the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows