Posted by Snowie on August 6, 2000, at 12:21:29
In reply to Social anxiety vs. Avoidant personality disorder, posted by anita on August 4, 2000, at 13:23:52
Anita,
What you describe doesn't sound at all like Social Anxiety or Avoidant Personality Disorder. People with AvPD desperately want and crave interaction with other people, but they fear it at the same time because of their hypersensitivity to criticism and fear of rejection. Below is a link that discusses the personality disorders. Only you know where you really fit, if at all. Below that is a link to an excellent presentation about AvPD.
http://mentalhelp.net/personalitydisorders/symptom.htm - Discussion of Personality Disorders
http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~acheyne/courses/Avoidpd.html - AvPD Presentation
Snowie
> Hi all,
>
> I recently completed a survey on social anxiety for a non-profit group. Most of the questions were about, well, anxious feelings. However, a lot of my social phobia seems to be due to simply avoiding social situations because of a reluctance to interact with people, without feeling anxious about the prospect. Also, when with people I often feel quite numb and very bored, and can't think of anything to say or even want to say anything.
>
> So I'm wondering if Avoidant personality disorder, which is often equated with social anxiety or social phobia, is really a further step in the problem, perhaps due to the past chronic anxiety, sort of like a learned response, maybe. Interestingly, anti-anxiety meds do not help my social problems.
>
> Anybody have any thoughts?
>
> anita
poster:Snowie
thread:42160
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000729/msgs/42290.html