do you suffer from avoidance personality disorder?

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i think asperger and avoidance personality disorder go together for some reason. i havent been diagnosed with avoidance personality disorder, but if something scares or annoys me, i go to great length to avoid it. forcing myself to do things i dont want to do, even going for a checkup or doctor appointment, are extremely difficult. i only go in emergencies.

I've done some absolutely crazy things to avoid typical situations when they've caused me enough anticipatory anxiety.

Why is everything a 'personality disorder' now? Why can't trait x just be what you're like and that's all there is to it? Why pathologize everything?

I've got that, thought it was part of Aspergers, didn't realise it's a disorder in itself and had a name.
Never heard of it before.

Avoidance personality? no

I don't have a diagnoses of avoidant PD, but I guess I do have enough traits of it to where it was worth mentioning in my disability hearing since 'traits of avoidant PD' was listed as one of my disabling issues. As for my aspergers diagnoses....the neurologist specifies 'aspergers/asd' but in my records at the mental health center I go for therapy or other appointments it's put down as PDD-NOS but for all practical sense I have autism, with avoident PD traits and other co-morbids.

So perhaps I'd have enough traits for a diagnoses of that, but have not been properly evaluated for any PDs I do not think.

I would imagine most people on the spectrum, especially if you grew up with people not knowing your peculiarities and were tried to be normalized, would meet the criteria for avoidant personality disorder. Avoidant personality will happen if you perceive that you are treated poorly by most people you meet. If the thought of being around people makes you stressed such that it interferes with your life because you think 'I am not good enough for this interaction, I will fail at this interaction, they will think poorly of me', that qualifies as being avoidant. This can happen to non ASD people too though, obviously. It will happen when there are social expectations that you cannot meet, basically, or if you for some reason perceive you are not meeting them (even if you are). As such, I imagine there a lucky few aspies out there who had great families and understanding schooling such that when bullying and stuff happened, there were people on their side backing them up, for whom the thought of social interaction is not worrisome and so they wouldn't meet this criteria.

I definitely avoid people, BUT people do not knowingly make me worry that I am acting inappropriately. I rather feel that when I avoid people I -know- I do not want to put the effort into interacting with them and I will not get anything in return if I do. The idea of putting in the effort can cause a great deal of anxiety, but in the same way that getting out of bed in the morning can cause me a great deal of anxiety. The anxiety is not specific to being around people. There CAN be people-specific anxiety about having my privacy invaded, but that's not the same as thinking I am going to be perceived poorly.

I feel more SPD than avoidant, but next DSM is probably removing SPD as a diagnostic criteria, so I would then become avoidant even though SPD describes my motivational issues as well and AvPD does not. I also strongly feel that I do some sort of dissociation regularly now, but wasn't aware of it (which is standard) for most of my life, and that meshes with SPDs being overly-sensitive but contrastingly extremely low emotion...dissociative state is no emotion, regular state is extreme emotional sensitivity. This paragraph is off-topic.

And yes, things that make you unable of functioning in society are called disorders, regardless of the cause. I don't see why then attaching names to all the specific ways this happens makes people roll their eyes.

Oh, and unlike the poll, avoiding difficult situations isn't representative of what avoidant personality disorder is. Avoidant personality disorder pertains to social situations and worry about being them due to you thinking you will fail and other people will think poorly of you.

I wouldn't at all be surprised if I have AvPD or something like it. I remember in high school I kept my distance from everyone, going so far as to avoid the evening school bus and cafeteria altogether. I also suffer from extremely low self esteem and think I am not good enough for anyone, that everyone is out of my league. In the transitional housing where I live I go into the dining room as infrequently as possible but that could also be related to my sensory issues.

Can't be sure without a good test, which I can't find online, but I don't think I have a personality disorder, and I'm not convinced this one is all that real.

Here's the main criteria from the ICD-10:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoidant_p ... #Diagnosis

At least four of the following:

persistent and pervasive feelings of tension and apprehension;
Don't know. I have such feelings but they're not particularly about social matters. More about (e.g.) losing essential items, losing my health, running out of money, being burgled, being beaten up........does that count?

belief that one is socially inept, personally unappealing, or inferior to others;
Not really. I see myself as prone to social ineptitude in some situations. I find it hard to imagine an Aspie who wouldn't be. I don't view myself as personally unappealing. People have been known to seek me out for company. I have a deep-rooted self-esteem problem but I don't believe I'm inferior to others at all.

excessive preoccupation with being criticized or rejected in social situations;
I don't exactly get preoccupied with it, but I've noticed I have a strong aversion to being socially rejected in any aggressive or mocking kind of way, and I'm not in the habit of sticking my neck out and risking rejection. It hasn't paralyzed me though. I've taken some risks, and found it rather fun, like any other reasonable risks.

unwillingness to become involved with people unless certain of being liked;
I have a degree of that about me, but again I do take a few risks. I tend to carefully inch closer to people I like, never going too far without checking that it's going down OK, in a way that looks designed to avoid getting rejected. I hate people invading me too much so I try not to do it to others. One reason I don't form friendships quickly is that I fear having to reject them if they start expecting too much commitment, and I really hate pushing people away.

restrictions in lifestyle because of need to have physical security;
I tend to play my life out safely and boringly to avoid being physically hurt.

avoidance of social or occupational activities that involve significant interpersonal contact because of fear of criticism, disapproval, or rejection.
To some extent I avoided jobs that involved a lot of contact with strangers or people who upset or annoyed me, but I've always preferred good company while working. As a diagnosed Aspie it made sense for me to anticipate my social limits and try to stay within my depth. And the occupational fear was always about getting the sack or being otherwise attacked by the bosses, which I felt was more to do with their estimation of my productivity and obedience than their estimation of my social performance, though I'd have been scared of the bossed persecuting me for getting into conflicts with colleagues.

With social activities, it's not the significant interpersonal contact I avoid, so much as certain types of people, e.g. judgemental, competitive, aggressive, scornful, destructive, loud, invasive. With the right people, I've been very relaxed and confident - even overconfident. I'm rather more reclusive these days, but from what I can gather, if this disorder is there, it's been there all the time. My tendencies seem much more consistent with an Aspie becoming socially wary as a result of real failures.

I think having AS rather confounds the analysis, as some aspects of AS are bound to cause behaviour and feelings like some of the aforementioned ones.

I didn't get that "wow, that's me 100%! !!" feeling about any of those criteria. I have a hazy view of how "normal people" measure up to them, so with no reference point, I wasn't sure if my avoidant tendencies were particularly unusual. I'm sure most folks have a smattering of avoidancy. The online tests I've found don't seem very availing - I always seem to have much more complicated, nuanced answers to personality test questions than the answers I'm forced to give, so I feel it's impossible to answer truthfully and get a valid score.

I don't have a disorder but I am very emotional detached and avoidant when needed