Hi, I'm new here. I was diagnosed with avoidant personality disorder a few years ago. I don't know if I'm the classic case though...I mean I'm overly sensitive to public humiliation and rejection, but I'm better with criticism than I used to be. I can cope in most public places as long as there aren't too many people and I'm not being crowded. I do resist going anywhere other than school though and have a very strict schedule of when I do errands and it's the same every week so it feels more comfortable. My main problem is that even though I can interact with other people in a "normal" way, I can't get close to them and I feel lonely and isolated almost all of the time.

So I guess in some ways I'm better than what I was (and more than willing to give advice to people on how I got to where I am), but I still feel like I'm impossibly far away from being able to get what I want to be happy. Socially, career-wise, you name it.