Avoidant Personality Disorder

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Should get a diagnoses on which social phobia you got machine even if you don't go for the As thing can help your life allot by getting treated for it, more you avoid the situations normally gets 10x worse than last time…

I think I have AvPD but I have never been officially diagnosed with any personality disorder before. AvPD describes certain learnt behaviours I would like to un-learn. Sometimes I want to be around others but that is rare lately; I find that there is a correlation between my feelings of self-worth and the amount of social interaction I engage in. My thinking here is that if I increase my sense of self worth, then this would increase my likelihood of wanting to engage in social interaction. Increasing the sense of self worth is a task of its own.

The basic emotion I seem to feel predominantly is fear. If I am out of my comfort-zone for too long, I become exausted and irritable. I have also found that simply being around others is unpleasant, and I wish to be alone quite often. I think it's possible to be AvPD and AS at the same time, but a personality disorder can develop in anyone AS or no.

I feel the same. I see myself of no value to anyone so I do not even bother. Though
I do daydream alot about how I could improve my value but inattentive ADHD makes
sure I only dream and do not try and if I try it will not be a real effort. Like currentily
I have plans to do my on animation but have been doing little work. I see this $300 software package that looks like it would be much easier to work with than the free
software I'm using but I have been down that road a thousand times before where I
commit money to ideas and then do not finish them.

I have just discovered this and it seems to describe me exactly.

I just don't like being around people for too long unless they know how I am.

Do I avoid social settings? You bet! Not all the time, though, as I still leave my comfort zone and go out, well, once a month, maybe twice. I hang out with family and their friends - they are all new to me as I never KNEW them until this past summer. But, when they sit in a circle and talk about whatever, I cannot keep up and get confused.

There are social phobias I have which suck but some are amusing - public bathrooms - I hate urinals, its like I'm on display for everyone to watch. I also don't like public speaking - I cannot think under that stress. Is my stuttering whats causing panic? Sometimes, a lot of the time, however, I think people will not "get" me. This is normally reinforced by the fact they actually dont (i.e. answer a question I asked even though my question was a joke (because it was stupid?)).

Bars are loud and annoying. They arent my thing, my things are "quiet." Phobia?

As well, even as a small child, I never spoke much. Never out of fear because, with certain people, I CAN act closer to who I really am.

Not having much psych knowledge, I think its funny that there are so many similar described disorders. Its not like we are machines (sorry about the pun) that can have a discrete problem isolated with one particular fix. (Engineering analogy - we are "statically indeterminate" - there are no precise answers). Surely is AVD is different symptoms/causes from social phobia, there must be much overlap.

Incidentally, I don't think I have more than 2 of the symptoms listed. My wife (who I would say has no AS traits - very good non verbal skills and "emotional intuition") has all the AVD symtoms.

Not a good combination for socialisation

I don't have social anxiety, only for talking on the phone. Hate that! I just simply hate being around people for extended periods of time. Even with my handful of friends. I just can't tolerate social interaction. It's not a matter of anxiety- it's a matter of annoyance.
-OddDuckNash99-

Maybe you have more schizoidal features. I think I clearly developing more schizoidal features because I do not need much
social contact.

I think most people on Wrongplanet are actually APD, but AS gets a lot more attention, so that's what they think they are.

I suspect this of myself (AvPD: avoidant personality disorder) even though I have been diagnosed with Autism (age 5) and Asperger's (age 24) and my dad has Asperger's. I've been diagnosed and misdiagnosed before and given many different labels to the point where it doesn't even make sense, so it's possible it's happened once again. The problem is that many of the labels created by the APA have overlapping symptoms. Diagnosing is based upon symptom clusters while often not looking at the malfunctioning organ itself (the brain). I wish psychiartry would generally take a more two tiered approach towards diagnosing. IE: Brain SPECT imaging and seeing if over and under active brain regions coincide with symptoms the patient describes. It could help to eliminate the confusion and to give the proper medications to the patient.

Last edited by goomba on 18 Jan 2007, 11:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Its likely any person with AS could develop APD. And it would be highly comoribt with AS.

thats just a fancy term for woman

Regardless of your take on AvPD, any man that feels they are suffering in this fashion should be encouraged to seek help and to heal, just as a woman with AvPD should do as well. I think the viewpoint that men cannot or should not experience these sorts of thoughts because it would make them "less of a man" can prevent some men from getting help.

Avoidant personality disorder and social phobia, generalized type, are highly comorbid (i.e., patients are often diagnosed with both). Many people on WrongPlanet.net do, as someone has mentioned, complain more of symptoms relating to social phobia or avoidant personality disorder than Asperger's syndrome per se. I don't know whether this means they are mis-self-diagnosing or the autistic symptoms lead to social phobia and avoidant personality disorder as secondary disorders.

I had severe social phobic/avoidant personality symptoms as a child and teenager, but I've had the symptoms of Asperger's syndrome before, during, and since then. I am confident in social situations but still have quite a bit of trouble with social interaction despite it.

you are really good at telling people how things should be, and what they should and should not do.

It's my aspie talent