Posted by cedar on May 28, 2008, at 15:00:35
In reply to Re: Does anyone have Avoidant Personality Disorder? » kelsupreeze, posted by Sigismund on May 27, 2008, at 2:45:54
For many years I suffered from what I considered to be just anxiety and depression, with a pretty strong component of social anxiety. After leaving my job a year ago, however, I began to spend more and more time in the house and stopped reaching out to friends entirely, because I basically felt like as an unemployed recluse, I had nothing worth saying to anyone. It really became a downward spiral--more avoidance led to more self-doubt led to more avoidance. If someone asked me what was going on in my life, I would basically mumble and grow visibly uncomfortable and try to change the subject to something else quickly. I am slowly working on getting out more, although I stick to the least intimidating situations possible, and there are still days where I can't face other people. I hope to return to the workforce soon, and think this will be helpful, although extremely challenging at first.
I'm wary of personality disorder labels in general, but I really identify with the AvPD label in way that I don't with other personality disorders.
I've now been on various medications (over 30, and countless combinations) for 13 years (I recently went through 6-month period of clearing out my system of all meds totally recently, which I'm quite proud of, and now take only a small dose of wellbutrin and klonopin, and am slowly withdrawing off the klonopin). While I think it is a personal decision and something you need to decide for yourself, I tend to caution friends who are considering medication for the first time because it can lead to a long and frustrating road ahead.
That said, if you are interested in medication, the best ideas I can think of are adderall (which was incredibly helpful to me but I cannot take anymore because of substance abuse issues, so be careful if you have a history of this), and possibly Nardil. I haven't taken Nardil, but it seems to be a huge help to many people once they get their doctor to agree to an MAOI, and the main side effects I know of, weight gain and sexual dysfunction, do not seem to be concerns of yours.
I don't know where you live, but here in NY there are groups designed for people with general public speaking anxiety and more specifically for social anxiety. I know AvPD is different than social anxiety, but the way these groups work might be helpful (I think it is basically a 12-week program--the first week you sit silently and just observe, the next week you say your name, etc., and build up slowly over the weeks in a supportive group that knows what it feels like to experience discomfort of one kind or another in social settings.) It sounds a bit weird and I can't vouch for the efficacy of it, but it is something I've considered giving a chance (they offer the opportunity to observe a couple of sessions for free before committing.)
This is my first post on Babble, though I've been reading posts for the last few months, so I apologize if this is not helpful or off topic.
Best of luck to you.
poster:cedar
thread:288792
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080528/msgs/831682.html