I wanted to give some of my thoughts, observations and hopefully something that might help? Please excuse my spelling and sentence structures as im not very intelligent.

Ever have that "I know that there is something wrong with me but don't know what?' Well, the only way the shed those thoughts and feelings is to find out who you are, which of course comes with diagnoses.

I guess my diagnoses was the furthest from my mind (which took over 9 months btw) and upon diagnoses i still had no idea to what it was.

I see allot of avie's unknown to them use distraction to keep their head above water. Always moving onto the next thing to stop the avoidance catching up and swallowing them.. always scared of the unknown.

Once diagnosed all it does is give you a connection and a reason to who you are and what makes you tick..... It doesn't mean you're cured all it does is give a name.
I read those who say "oh its just a label" and that to me shows that this is as far as they have come in their journey and have progressed no further.

Allot of people will then sit on the diagnoses without going forward or back and this is because they are still using distraction, always bouncing to the next idea.. always trying to stay one step ahead of the unknown (as i have mentioned above) they might use distraction for many years as that all depends on their social situation, till eventually they have run out of excuses. These excuses and distractions don't have the strength they once had so they spiral and go into a dark place.

The lack of excuses, the lack of distractions put you squarely in the hands of your psych.
Now IMHO until you have nothing, until you are lost to who you are will be the only time you are ready. I'm sure that will come up for debate but im talking about Avoidance.

You cannot change who you are until you are desperate and lost, and in need for help. You can have the best advice in the world but if your not desperate enough... it will just fall on deaf ears... hence being mentally ready.

Until you are ready and desperate enough all you will do is dig a deeper hole using distraction as a shovel. Now, i think this is also a important part of growth because its slowly running you down till you are mentally broken.

I see it as that you can't change a strong brain, so it has to be burnt out.

Rock bottom, well i guess there are different experiences.
This is my thoughts
Anyone who tells you that they are at rock bottom ISNT!!!
Those who have been will talk about the recovery.

Rock bottom well, who knows how long you have to stay there but its a important part of growth as its letting go of defenses. You're effectively trying to break and let go of a life time of built in automatic reactions and responses.

From here you still have to work your way back with lots of failures, though the saving grace is that you start fresh on your own (well with the psych) but its only you who does the work....

The psych gives you the energy and someone to fall back on... but it is ultimately you to get back to where you started off from.
YES, FROM WHERE YOU STARTED FROM!....

But what has changed is that you know who you are and what makes you tick, all the excuses that fed the avoidance aren't as strong. Its like your back to where you once were but better mentally prepared to who you are.
This stronger mindset lets you balance the avoidance thoughts with where the thoughts are coming from and in doing so building a stronger threshold.

Yes, you're still an avie with a million thoughts bouncing around your head but you can handle situations better than you once did.

As a negative what i have noticed is that over time that strength isn't as strong as it once was.
Its normal to be in constant thought but where i was welcoming these thoughts because i found Avoidance interesting i wanted to better understand the avoidance and put thoughts to actions to reasons blar, blar, blar.. these days that thirst is slowly subsiding and every available space in the head is filling with Avoidance.

Hopefully this helps or gives insight or gives discussion.

I welcome those within the AvPD family with responses if they so choose to. Those with different personalities if I could politely ask you to refrain so we can keep it as an AvPD topic.