I’ve suspected I might have AvPD or something similar for a few months now. It seems like every symptom lines up with what I’ve been struggling with in my own life, and even if it isn’t AvPD, I want to know how to get better so bad.

I brought it up in therapy today, saying that I thought I just had social anxiety (as a symptom of my autism rather than as a separate disorder) but now worry it could actually be AvPD. They just responded by saying having social anxiety symptoms as a result of being autistic made sense and left it there.

I don’t wanna keep bringing it up bc I don’t want to seem like I’m fixating on it or trying to push for a diagnosis, bc who knows, I might not actually be AvPD at all. But maybe I do have social anxiety as a disorder and not just a symptom, or something else I’m not aware of, or if I was right the first time and it’s just part of my autism. But I won’t know unless I get a proper assessment. Idk, it’s just if this thing I’m worrying about is true, I wanna get help for it.

It just seems like reaching out for help and saying “I suspect I have this specific thing” carries this heavy stigma with it and I don’t want to seem like “that guy.” It’s not like I haven’t reached out before, when I suspected I suffered from depression and OCD and asked to be evaluated, my concerns turned out to be correct and were confirmed by the psychs I saw. But depression and OCD are common. Personality disorders, especially ones that aren’t cluster B, not so much.