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AzulOscuro
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Default Apr 28, 2016 at 10:19 AM
  #21
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Originally Posted by sumowira View Post
I don't think you can ever have it "under control." What's there to control? The urge to stay away from people? If anything, a "cure" would probably look like someone who had less self control, who kept themselves less contained. You can't control your avoidance anyway. Even if you ignore the urges and go out into the world interacting with people, the thoughts and impulses would still be there inside your head, and there's no way to stop or adjust them, not really. They always come back.

I don't like the idea that my personality is a flaw or a handicap. One has a handicap, one is not a handicap. When it comes down to it, a person is their personality. Maybe my personality has some odd quirks by other people's standards, but my entire self is not flawed because I think differently, or because I approach the world differently.

I also don't think that the only solution is just to learn to live with it. That's a very dark and hopeless scenario. Although it can't be cured, one can't recover from it, or however you want to state it, one can learn to manage it better. First by learning about it, then by paying attention to what your limits are and figuring out how to stay within them in a way that gives you the most of what you want from life. Everyone's life is a jigsaw puzzle. No one gets exactly what they want, it's all compromise after all.

The point of therapy is to figure out what is most important to you and then figure out a way to get it. It could very well be that "connecting with others" is too big a concept to start with. Perhaps "I'd like to create a relationship with this one person I know of whom I admire" or "I'd like to figure out what type of person I should look for to have a relationship with" might be a more manageable starting point.
I disagree with you. Personality disorder is not a mental illness. You have a choice. I know it's very difficult to change a personality and there isn't a cure. The only you can wait is to modulate it a little. But, in the end it's your choice.

I understand your own experience. I can tell you that in my case and I'm already 44, I learnt to live with it and try to survive day after day. Trying that my avoidance doesn't affect my work, my contact with people...I use to tell them that I'm a shy and nothing else but I'm fighting for having contact and a deeper conection with people in spide that I see myself a person who doesn't deserve this contact with others. This is my mind telling me and I find very difficult to avoid hearing it sometimes, but I know it's my mind the one who is playing bad games with me.
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LittleEarthquakes
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Default Apr 30, 2016 at 11:19 AM
  #22
I'm in the middle, I think it is a mental illness because of the way it manifests but you also have a choice.
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Default May 01, 2016 at 06:46 PM
  #23
You would be hard pressed to find any person with AvPD believes that we have choice.

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Diagnosed: AvPD.

It’s never alright. It comes and it goes.
It’s always around, even when it don’t show.
They say it gets better. well I guess that it might.
But even when it’s better, it’s never alright.
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Default Jun 02, 2016 at 05:04 PM
  #24
Welcome...I'm a little late responding to your original post, so I hope you continue to read what we late-comers have to say.

I was dx'd w/personality disorder NOS (not otherwise specified) w/avoidant features last summer and started psychodynamic psychotherapy. I've seen a couple of Ts in the past, but there was something about this T that made me want to give therapy another try. I struggle w/what's written in the research articles and what I believe. So, it's a bit up to you and also your T as to whether or not you can change.

First, my T has been in private practice for 36 years...lots of experience w/lots of different problems. Secondly, I'm older. When I was in therapy in my 20s and 30s, my issues were different and I wasn't so invested in changing (something I don't think researchers takes into consideration when they plan their research). Thirdly, therapy, done correctly, is hard. Building a relationship w/your T, learning to trust your T, understanding that the therapy is really ALL about your relationship w/your T is difficult for most everyone. The relationship w/your T plays out in exactly the way you relate to others in the world. Using your relationship w/your T to change how you relate to friends and family is the ultimate goal. Trusting your T to show you ways to change how you interact is crucial.

I believe you can change aspects of your personality so that you become happier, more satisfied w/your life, and a better friend to others. Finding the right T is not an easy process, either, but if you like the T you're seeing, tell him/her what you want to gain from therapy and see if s/he is able to get you to the finish line.

I wish you the best and hope you take the chance to find a way to make changes!!

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