Avoidant personality disorder

[Blue]

Avoidant personality disorder (sometimes abbreviated APD or AvPD), or anxious personality disorder, is a personality disorder characterized by a pervasive pattern of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, extreme sensitivity to negative evaluation and avoiding social interaction. People with avoidant personality disorder often consider themselves to be socially inept or personally unappealing, and avoid social interaction for fear of being ridiculed, humiliated, or disliked. They typically present themselves as loners and report feeling a sense of alienation from society.
Avoidant personality disorder usually is first noticed in early adulthood, and is associated with perceived or actual rejection by parent or peers during childhood. Whether the feeling of rejection is due to the extreme interpersonal monitoring attributed to people with the disorder is still disputed.

Source, Links and More Info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoidan...ality_disorder

[Britt]

I have questions about this. I myself am a married woman with a fantastic husband and three children. My husband is more social than I am - although he doesn't often go out without me. He doesn't get sick in the stomach and worry like I do if I have to go to a party - I worry about who is going to be there and will people ignore me or talk to me or will I feel invisible. I have always felt this way. However, I would rather stay at home or have coffee with my girlfriends, mainly one-to-one - I feel safe with my friends. Quite often the unknown scares me. However, to complicate things, I have deliberately taken up a job as a photographer whereby I have to go out and meet people and talk with them ....... I have to push myself and be social. I do it, and quite often it is quite OK. But I still worry about what people think about me, and when I am feeling paranoid I feel as though people are looking at me 'funny' or deliberately ignoring me ..... does this make sense or strike a chord with anyone else?? I also have a fear of being perceived as 'lonely' - my husband and I don't have a social group as such and we either hang out sometimes with our friends individually, or spend time with our kids. Is that normal as well? From my observations, families seem to have 4 or 5 other couples they can go out with or have a barbecue with .... we don't have that and I do worry about other people being aware of this oddity.

[urlelove]

In Avoidant Personality Disorder, the person maintains a systematic avoidance of social contacts and any situation which might result in embarrassment or anxiety. Even with people who are close, he or she avoids a more intimate involvement.