Avoidant Personality Disorder.
In a nutshell, I’m a wuss when it comes to connecting with people and staying around them. There are lengthy time periods of where we isolate ourselves, avoid any deep contact, and we’re pretty much socially inept. We have a fear of being judged, ridiculed, rejected, and sometimes even disliked. Loss and rejection can be exceedingly painful for us, but more than anything, we’re terrified of our own shortcomings and whether or not people will leave us. It’s a type of anxiety disorder.
Symptoms included but aren’t necessarily limited to:
- Hypersensitivity to rejection/criticism
- Self-imposed social isolation
- Extreme shyness or anxiety in social situations, though the person feels a strong desire for close relationships
- Avoids physical contact because it has been associated with an unpleasant or painful stimulus
- Feelings of inadequacy
- Severe low self-esteem Self-loathing
- Mistrust of others
- Emotional distancing related to intimacy
- Highly self-conscious
- Self-critical about their problems relating to others
- Problems in occupational functioning
- Lonely self-perception, although others may find the relationship with them meaningful
- Feeling inferior to others
- In some more extreme cases — agoraphobia
- Utilizes fantasy as a form of escapism and to interrupt painful thoughts
For me, I get the hypersensitivity at certain times, the extreme shyness and sometimes anxiety in social situations, feelings of inadequacy, emotional distancing, extremely self-critical, inferiority, and escapism. Some come, some go, but there are symptoms I have that are a constant.
