[Miss Laura]

I saw a Clinical Psychologist in Dec 2016. She wrote I had AVPD... Avoidant Personality Disorder. I have never been told this until I obtained my medical records in April 2023. They have been sitting with this information all this time and I found out by reading notes and googling things. Why wouldn't they tell me? I could be treated for this. In it she wrote I'd never be cured of AVPD but I read you could get Therapy for it. I'm so confused and really angry

[Lostislost]

It sounds like it was just her opinion rather than a fact. Especially the bit about never being cured, how could she know that? I really dislike that about people in mental health, when they think they know everything. I would be angry too.

[Salmon77]

I think we give more significance to a diagnosis than it really has sometimes. The doctor can't look at your brain and see, ah yes, this part's shrunken, obviously she's got AVPD. They can only consider your symptoms and your behavior, and choose the diagnosis they think fits the best. And different psychologists might see things differently. Sometimes a diagnosis helps people understand their own problems better, but sometimes it's just a label.

All this to say, I think you can work on coping with the symptoms that bother you, maybe through therapy or maybe in other ways, without getting too hung up on the AVPD label.