I dont know what all critera professionals use to determine who are Avoiodants and who are just depressed or socially awkward.

I wish I did.

I suspect that many many people are misdiagnosed because the symptoms for Avodants are much the same as these others.

Plus Avoidants seem to be good at lying. Not that they all do this on purpose. But Avodiants dont want people to know they are Avoidants to avoid rejection.

So they put on a good face and use laughter to cover up they feelings. So professionals often think that they are faking and just not telling the truth.

I was diagnosed a long time ago. But I think I was mostly relieved. For many years, I thought I was just messed up and there was no one else out there like me.

It was a relief to finally know what the problem was and that there were others out there just like me.