Avoidant Personality Disorder... anyone else?

my T suggested I have this at our last session, has not officially changed my notes but was basically asking my thoughts on it and was suggesting he would update my notes with this.

It sounds an awful lot like me, I thought I was just an introvert but with my touch and intimacy issues as well, this could very well fit

I am curious, does anyone else have this? If so, has your T helped you find ways to work through it??

Does anyone else have any other personality disorder? It's interesting stuff to learn about

I suffer from BPD. It's gotten a lot better over the years. Therapy and just maturing has helped.

I don't know much about that but I've heard that it's something many T's don't like to treat. Have you found that to be true?

I'm pretty sure I have fearful avoidant attachment style, not so sure about personality disorder. I have not clue what my T would dx me with if push came to shove. She's never told me. I'm not sure I'd want to know. When I do look at the personality disorders, I do feel like the cluster C fits me best which does include Avoidant as well as Dependent and OCD.

I've been diagnosed with mixed personality disorder with avoidant, dependent and schizoid traits. I'm working on it with T3. For me, talk therapy has not been useful but the body based therapies have been. I am definitely still in treatment for it, though.

T3 has had clients "recover" from personality disorders. Some people think that is impossible. I am still not sure.

I've been dx'd w/Personality Disorder NOS (not otherwise specified) w/avoidant features. Most of the time, I feel like I'm fighting for my life as I desperately want close relationships, but my defenses head off any success I might have. There are people who don't care about having relationships and those, like me, who do. Both can be dx'd with Avoidant Personality Disorder. Not to discourage you or sound like it's all doom and gloom, Avoidant Personality Disorder is very difficult to treat. Does your T think s/he can help? Do you care about having relationships? If not, there's nothing wrong with that lifestyle, but it would dictate how your therapy is structured.

There's a forum on PsychCentral for Avoidant Personality Disorder - as well as other PDs. You might find interesting information there. Best wishes.

This is me!

The first one said I was avoidant/dismissive but I think she was talking more about attachment because it was in the context of her talking about bonding with her - I have no idea what she was going on about. The second one never really brought it up

I was diagnosed AVPD about a year ago. Unfortunately, literature on this condition is scant. I don't know of any technique or modality that specifically targets AVPD. I hope to incorporate some schema concepts in my therapy in the future as schema work is thought to benefit personality disorders in general.

My T and I are focusing on trauma work right now, mostly through the use of brainspotting and written narratives (I was also diagnosed with PTSD). Parental and/or peer group rejection are thought to be two of the most significant environmental contributors to the development of AVPD. We hope that resolving my rejection traumas will lessen my avoidant symptoms. There is also a focus on attachment and the therapeutic relationship, which is extremely difficult due to the heavy load of fear and shame avoidants carry. It is slow, laborious work.

I'm one of the lucky ones

It used the be very bad. PrevT has helped me a bit. But now I'm very depressed and the focus is more on that.

Unless your t has a PhD and has given you appropriate testing to back up his suspicions of you being AvPD, I would not let him officially update your notes with this diagnosis. My p-doc told me it's rare to have AvPD. There is a difference in having avoidant traits and having the actual personality disorder.
Your best bet is to do your research on AvPD and see a psychiatrist for proper diagnosing, if that's what you want.

I was, after many years in therapy, diagnosed with Personality Disorder Not Otherwise Specified 8 years ago. I believe that I probably would have qualified for Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder before I essentially fell apart after my late husband died.

I think personality disorders are interesting to learn about, too. Curiosity and learning might be thought of as one of my "defense mechanisms", but it probably could be worse!

I wish more therapists found them interesting to learn about. And I wish they, or maybe some academics somewhere, were more curious about them and how to help people with them to cope or really "recover" from them.

I personally believe "recovery" is possible. It's mostly just a feeling -- somewhere in there there is a "healthy me" just trying to come out!! But I'm 70 and so far. . .but I'm not dead yet. Once there are some success stories, what worked and what doesn't, and maybe some good generalizations or theories about why -- hopefully it won't be so awful for people with PD's in the future.

My last T thought that I had the anxious-ambivalent attachment style. She said she did, too.

Hmmm. . .I wonder if that could be associated with a kind of "split" between love and hate responses. . .A major issue all my life has apparently been my avoidance of, and dissociation from, a major rejection/abandonment feeling that my last T eventually triggered and which I think (and feel) may be associated with my "hate" response, which I think was dissociated, in part because it was universally looked down on by my family of origin.

I'm pretty sure this doesn't relate to avoidant personality disorder. I've been in a support group for years with two people who I suspect have AvPD. And they are very different from me. Very nice people, though! I've never heard of them disliking or hating anybody, or even being angry much. But they do avoid some people! I try very hard not to be one of those.

Many Ts don't want to work with BPD clients, but I haven't run into that problem. Both my Pdoc and T treat me well. They focus on the symptoms; not the diagnosis.

I have been diagnosed advoidant. It does get better. I have become much more outgoing than I used to be. I still avoid relationships though mostly because I am pretty content with the way I am now. I had to learn to be okay with the way I was.

That's great to hear, gives me some hope. I'd like a relationship but I just don't know if I could actually handle it well.

Why does that matter? every site I've read about it, says if you think you have it, talk to a mental health professional, not a speific type, he also says social anxiety which I know I have. I've known that aspect for years. He likely wont update anything. AvPD really does fit me down to the touch issues and fear of being close to people in relationships etc.

If you are ok with possibly having the diagnosis of the personality disorder listed in your records, then it doesn't matter.

Suggesting and doing are not the same, lol... my T has a horrible memory, I'd be shocked if he remembered even saying this