# Who thinks they know what avoidant personality disorder is?



## letitrock (Jan 10, 2009)

So basically, a logn time ago, I thought it was the same thing as social anxiety sidorder, then I learned it ws way different and thought that might be my problem for a few months, then I went to therapy for a bit and she kind of brushed it off when I told her that I thought Avoidant personality disorder might be my main issue, so then I was like okay, and I brushed it off too, but the other day I heard something about how personality disorders affect your life chronically and I remembered APD, like hey!, nothing's really changed with me except for higher anxiety, other than just continueing school, I have made very very little progress, my life is not where I want it to be for a long time financially, socially, emotionally, mentally, everything and I've done it to myself....

So in lamens terms what is it, and and I already saw a couple threads awhile back which were the ones that kind of gave me a lightbulb moment, like this is my problem! It fits, I've figured it out

I just need someone else to say it again though, to confirm it, like what is Avoidant Personality disorder exactly? Not just what you think it is, not some vague defeinition which makes it sound like every other disorder but what is it actually exactly?


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

I just posted my description/personal experience in another thread about it in Secondary Disorders. Don't feel like explaining it again. Not even sure if my post even described it accurately, probably not. 

I'm not what there is to misunderstand though. I'm diagnosed with it and the DSM description is pretty accurate for me, spot-on.


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## To22 (Apr 6, 2012)

*Fart noise* no clue! Now you've made me very curious =/


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## Brad (Dec 27, 2011)

I have it, at first I thought I had SA but i'm pretty sure it's this.


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## Invisiblehandicap (Jul 31, 2011)

I have it. From my own experience:

Its a self defense mechanism to defend against danger. This sense of danger is created by the anxiety disorder. I don't believe anything that says that you can have avoidant personality disorder without either suffering from an anxiety disorder or another mental disorder.

Avoidant personality disorder is hard to recognise because a lot of the activity is subconscious. For example, other people would annoy me so that I felt less anxiety about them rejecting me or judging me. I *believed* that all of my reasons to avoid something were logical. Who you are changes in order to accommodate the avoidant behavior. You do not know how bad it is until you analyses your behaviors.

It is common to have maladaptive daydreaming associated with avoidant personality disorder.

word of warning : as you avoid less, your SA/GAD will become worse. It would be compared to coming off of medication for SA. You should not go off of it cold turkey, otherwise bad things will happen.

* avpd can also include avoidance of other emotions in addition to anxiety.


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## Northern Lights (Jul 22, 2010)

I have it


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## To22 (Apr 6, 2012)

Invisiblehandicap said:


> It is common to have maladaptive daydreaming associated with avoidant personality disorder.
> 
> word of warning : as you avoid less, your SA/GAD will become worse. It would be compared to coming off of medication for SA. You should not go off of it cold turkey, otherwise bad things will happen.
> 
> * avpd can also include avoidance of other emotions in addition to anxiety.


Interesting. It seems like I might have avpd. I literally avoid all my emotions. I do not enjoy feeling anything. I daydream frequently and I never seem to get anything positive out of social interaction. I have good social skills and it isn't like I don't know how to deal with people but the fear of embarrassing myself keeps me away from them. I used to take a lot of risk when socializing as that is my personality but now I simply understand that my personality is too much or too little of something..embarrassing myself is habitual.

I've been doing a lot of research on this topic and I'm confused at this point. From what I've gathered I probably do have avpd, it would seem that I have it for a fact but I need more info and/or a doctor's diagnosis. I am confused as to whether or not something like avpd is a result of sa or can the 2 conditions coexist? My symptoms are in line with both conditions and the more I know the more I can deal with my situation.


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## Winds (Apr 17, 2011)

I have it for sure. Played a large role in me dropping out of college and spending 99% of my time over the last year at home.


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## Cletis (Oct 10, 2011)

Someone who avoids taking risks that most people have no problem taking due to fear of failure, ridicule, etc.

Pretty much sums up my life to date but I've made quite a bit of improvement thanks to Zoloft.


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## Ironpain (Aug 8, 2010)

In short Avoidant personality disorder is a mental health condition in which a person has a lifelong pattern of feeling very shy, inadequate, and sensitive to rejection. A Guy in my real life social anxiety support group talked about this to the group and passed around a book he had read and a photocopied sheet of what it was. 

Someone with Avoidant personality disorder 

Avoid activities or jobs that involve contact with others
Be shy in social situations out of fear of doing something wrong
Make potential difficulties seem worse than they are
Hold the view they are not good socially, not as good as other people, or unappealing

People with Avoidant Personalities seem to be very Hyper sensitive about their environment which creates a sense of mistrust, they are extremely sensitive to what others think of them.


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## letitrock (Jan 10, 2009)

Ironpain said:


> Someone with Avoidant personality disorder
> 
> Avoid activities or jobs that involve contact with others
> Be shy in social situations out of fear of doing something wrong
> ...


Ok, then what the hell is social anxiety disorder??? Cause from some of the descriptions of avpd that I've seen like the one above seem like characteristics of social anxiety disorder. Do I have it wrong? I'm under the impression that social anxiety disorder on its own can do a lot damage, but if what you're describing is avpd, then social anxiety disorder is totally something different, it's not anything significant on its own, it has a very small set of characteristics, right?


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## estse (Nov 18, 2003)

I think I have AvPD, and it shows on here. It was brought up when I made a thread entitled, "Why are people here so ****ing chummy?" and is probably the reason I don't chat, accept friend requests, allow VMs, etc. I have a natural tendency to view positivity as false and think I'm the worst, most undeserving person.


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## Winds (Apr 17, 2011)

letitrock said:


> Ok, then what the hell is social anxiety disorder??? Cause from some of the descriptions of avpd that I've seen like the one above seem like characteristics of social anxiety disorder. Do I have it wrong? I'm under the impression that social anxiety disorder on its own can do a lot damage, but if what you're describing is avpd, then social anxiety disorder is totally something different, it's not anything significant on its own, it has a very small set of characteristics, right?


A person with SAD can be completely functional in most social situations, but certain ones cause them extreme anxiety. The common example on here, is anxiety over a presentation for school, fitting in at a party, or dating. For a lot of people their SAD is situational and may not play much of a factor outside of the given situation.

On the other hand, I always saw Avpd as being a much more severe form of generalize social anxiety that seeps into all aspect of a person's life, usually topped off by a extreme emotional distancing, a long term lonely self perception, restrictions in lifestyle to fit around the need to avoid social situations, and a deep seeded mistrust of others. I may be wrong on that, but that is how I separate the two.


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## SweetNSour82 (Dec 19, 2011)

^that's what I thought it was too.


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## Ironpain (Aug 8, 2010)

letitrock said:


> Ok, then what the hell is social anxiety disorder??? Cause from some of the descriptions of avpd that I've seen like the one above seem like characteristics of social anxiety disorder. Do I have it wrong? I'm under the impression that social anxiety disorder on its own can do a lot damage, but if what you're describing is avpd, then social anxiety disorder is totally something different, it's not anything significant on its own, it has a very small set of characteristics, right?


We talked about the differences in the group, ah we mentioned that there's no nervousness or feelings of anxiety, people with Avoidant personality disorder don't have things like Panic attacks that's the way I understood it from the group discussion, it's very narrow I don't understand it all.


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## Witan (Jun 13, 2009)

I've read a little bit about it, but I don't see how it's different from SA :con


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## Invisiblehandicap (Jul 31, 2011)

Witan said:


> I've read a little bit about it, but I don't see how it's different from SA :con


Its a coping mechanism for SA / other anxiety disorder, gone wrong. You consistently avoid situations that you would get SA from... you get addicted to avoidance and your personality and beliefs, emotions adapt in order to allow for the avoidance to persist. At least in my experience. I.e in the past, I have disliked people for stupid reasons so I could use this as an excuse to avoid them and thus reduce my anxiety.


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## Ventura (May 5, 2009)

Invisiblehandicap said:


> Its a coping mechanism for SA / other anxiety disorder, gone wrong. You consistently avoid situations that you would get SA from... you get addicted to avoidance and your personality and beliefs, emotions adapt in order to allow for the avoidance to persist. At least in my experience. I.e in the past, I have disliked people for stupid reasons so I could use this as an excuse to avoid them and thus reduce my anxiety.


Sort of like Agoraphobia.....


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