Avoidant personality disorder VS Autism

Surely a lot of this is a reaction to being badly bullied, rejected and humiliated, if you've experienced these things then why would you not be afraid and avoidant? We learn not to stick our fingers in the fire because we get burnt, why should we not have the same reaction to being burnt by others cruelty? Why should we trust when that trust has been so badly abused? I'm not saying that social anxiety and AVPD aren't a problem, but a bit more understanding of why people become like this is needed and the causes addressed.

This is why I posted what I posted below. I think there is a big difference between being fearful of situations because of our life experiences and having these fears and feelings to the extreme as to in a personality disorder.

Life experiences may well contribute to people having AVPD but I would imagine it's a lot more complicated and I'd say it's a minority that actually have it. It is defined by complete avoidance. I can't imagine that people with AVPD would be interacting on a forum such as this as this is a form of social interaction.

For those of us with social anxiety who avoid a lot of social interaction an online forum can feel like a safer way to do it. And yes if imagine a lot of us who are socially anxious were badly bullied.

This is where people need to be careful. There is a place for self diagnosis but the lines easily become blurred and it is easy to confuse conditions and symptoms.

I think theres a place for self diagnosis, or at least an educated suspicion that you can take to a doctor and get started on the road to formal diagnosis.

I was bullied and excluded by other people, to the point where I'm very wary of new people, I do prefer places like this, but I couldn't imagine being on "bigger" social media where the keyboard warriors hang out. I wasn't trying to infer that all personality disorders are from outside causes such as bullying, but I do wonder what part external sources play in it?

I think all these different diagnosis make me think, 'hang on a minute', as it does seem that new ones are popping up all the time, not to imply that their not genuine or that there aren't people genuinely suffering, but sometimes I think we're encouraged to self diagnose with Dr Google playing a big part. Back in the day, we were warned not to read those medical dictionary things as you'd end up convincing yourself you'd got half the book of illnesses. 

Considering how many undiagnosed autistic individuals there must be out there perhaps ND is actually infact NT. 

I guess the difficulty is that we need the diagnoses to get the support needed and for me anyway, to have an understanding of myself. So yes I absolutely get what you mean but how do we achieve that but still be able to identify need and allocate support?

Why can't we be different types of normal?

Yes I agree. I think a lot of conditions need to be looked at renamed and for some the criteria redone to keep up with what they now know. ADHD is a classic example as the name and criteria being outdated for the research. But with personality disorders it probably needs to be looked at how they have with autism going from ASD to ASC to acknowledge it not actually being a disorder but even personality condition would be problematic for me. It still suggests there's something wrong with your personality. I know having a personality disorder comes with it's difficulty but labelling your personality as a problem must be difficult on the self esteem. I'm not sure what the answer is but I feel like there must be a better one.

Yes I agree. I think a lot of conditions need to be looked at renamed and for some the criteria redone to keep up with what they now know. ADHD is a classic example as the name and criteria being outdated for the research. But with personality disorders it probably needs to be looked at how they have with autism going from ASD to ASC to acknowledge it not actually being a disorder but even personality condition would be problematic for me. It still suggests there's something wrong with your personality. I know having a personality disorder comes with it's difficulty but labelling your personality as a problem must be difficult on the self esteem. I'm not sure what the answer is but I feel like there must be a better one.

Considering how many undiagnosed autistic individuals there must be out there perhaps ND is actually infact NT. 

I guess the difficulty is that we need the diagnoses to get the support needed and for me anyway, to have an understanding of myself. So yes I absolutely get what you mean but how do we achieve that but still be able to identify need and allocate support?

Why can't we be different types of normal?