I'm sure I have more than ASD

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Recently I've become increasingly convinced that I have something other than ASD which has been causing me so many difficulties in life. I've been looking up avoidant personality disorder and several online tests are pretty conclusive that I have it. The only problem is that so many of the visible "symptoms" resemble ASD on the surface so no professionals have, clearly, ever attempted to investigate when ASD fits just about enough to make life much easier for them...

The problem is that although I know I have ASD to a certain extent I don't think I have it to quite the extent that everyone now assumes. I have great feelings of inadequacy that aren't just down to not knowing about social cues or *how* to talk to people, which have been made worse by years of rejection in all spheres of life, and I've put off so many things in life because I fear criticism, and further rejection, from others. But it seems like, now they've got their diagnosis, this is *all* put down to merely being socially inept (and all too often I'm presumed to be intellectually incompetent also) and the only help I've ever received is pamphlets or invitations to social groups where they teach small talk. To be honest I never felt the need for those groups because they never seemed to teach anything that I didn't gather from watching TV, actually *being* in social situations in the past and, you know, living life... I do have those issues on occasion but again I feel there's far more to it.

Anyone else had other mental health conditions which have been "obscured" by ASD?

I had the opposite problem. My diagnoses of Social Anxiety, OCD, and ADHD obscured my ASD which delayed me getting diagnosed.

That seems to be the common issue, ASD being the "evasive" diagnosis, so I'm probably an outlier in that regard.

However this is a feeling I've had for my entire life, all the treatments on offer just never seemed to feel suited to me at all and the more I read around online the more convinced I am there's something else.

ASD and OCD. And I have learned to be proud of it too!

Initially, the psychologist thought I had avoidant personality disorder, but then she found ASD and said that would explain my symptoms.

It seems like when you're diagnosed with ASD they usually don't diagnose you with a personality disorder.

I have mental diagnoses:

PTSD
GAD
Dysthymia

I can relate to a lot of your symptoms. I also fear rejection which often inhibits me from trying.

Weirdly I know a lot of AS people online (never meet them in real life) most of whom claim to have a co-morbid personality disorder, it usually seems to be borderline personality disorder and a fair few also have bipolar.

I can understand there's a fair bit of overlap between ASD and avoidant personality disorder but it's the nuances of each which I can't seem to convey adequately and perhaps the reason it's been overlooked. I've never directly asked to be diagnosed for anything but, ironically, that's probably due to the inhibition caused by either of these conditions and not wanting to waste their time

While I have ADHD, OCD, Social anxiety, BPD along with my ASD officially, before my ASD diagnosis which btw all those other diagnoses came first, I was also described as schizoid. But really all of those conditions I see in my opinion are just connected and are components of my autism, not independent diagnoses.

This might sound like a strange question, but how would a different diagnosis help?