can anyone give me advice?

[ashley 50]

I know that self diagnosis isn't a good thing but my AVPD is so severe that i cant help but clearly recognize it even though I have never been officially diagnosed. I actually have been diagnosed as having BPD 7 years ago when I was 20 years old and was in group psychotherepy and unable to function properly in it because of the immense anxiety I felt there, I couldn't communicate properly with the therepists or psyciatrists and i felt very messed up all the time during my time there and didn't feel that my situation was clear to anyone. My family doctor (who has known me my whole life) after I'd been diagnosed with BPD asked me if I really agreed that I had it and told me straightforwardly that he disagrees, I said I agreed because I didn't really know what BPD was at the time and figured that the professionals would know.

Once I looked in to BPD I didn't know how they came to the conclusion that I had it, I feel like because of how avoidant I was in therepy they may have had a hard time making a clear diagnosis and just chose to label me as borderline.

The thing is that I have avoided treatment and any further therepy feeling i'v been misdiagnosed so now i feel like i will never be understood properly to get approprate treatment, whoever I go to will see BPD in my file.

My life now having AVPD is tormenting and I desprity want help , I am failing badly at life and I am terrified of people and if I dont get help having AVPD is going to leave me completly tormented for the rest of my existance on this planet .

How do I get help? How do I when i'm labeled as having BPD , I have maby 1 attribute of that disorder but I have every attribute of AVPD. I feel like noone will even want to listen to me at all and force me to get treated for bpd if I want treatment.

 

[coyote]

Doctors are usually very willing to make their own diagnosis and not necessarily stick with one that the previous doctor made.

Just tell them from the outset that you'd like a new diagnosis - a "second opinion."

 

[Waybuloo]

I have a similar concern to yours. I've been diagnosed by a psychiatrist from 'the best independent' mental health hospital in Europe. She included avoidant in the list of disorders that I seem to have. I must say i've never had much faith in the psychiatric institution from the get go, as past treatments over the years have proved pretty much futile. I think that maybe just step back from the need to categorise your condition and give a name to it. For all you know you could have co-morbid conditions that overlap and whatnot. For me, my social anxiety and avoidance feel like symptoms to a bigger problem.

What I would do in your position is to goto your family doctor for help, since he knows you so well compared to other people. Maybe he knows of more reputable psychiatrists from whom you could get another diagnosis? I wasn't happy with my childhood psychiatrist's diagnosis which was just depression, when I realise now after much reflection that depression was a minor part of my bundle of problems. A good psychiatrist/therapist would keep asking you questions, deeper questions, to better understand your problems, and cover all bases. Whenever you are faced with a professional, it really helps to draw a diagram or a list of all the issues/symptoms that you face in your life, from the beginning when it dawned on you, to the present time. Never underestimate early events in your life, and mental health history in your family is also worth a mention.

I wish you luck on your quest to find an answer. I am still not 100% happy with what I've been diagnosed with, but I have a pretty good idea that I have mental genes in both my parents families, and I had a horrendous childhood that shaped my unstable and vulnerable self that never grew emotionally. That's how I come to view it in a nutshell.

 

[Feathers]

Hi Ashley & Welcome!

Well, I don't know about you - but I like to learn about things myself. By that I mean reading everything I can about a certain topic. Can you read articles and books on BPD and avoidant and sa/sp and how they are treated? etc. Maybe print out things and show your doctor?

AVPD and SA/SP are sometimes 'two faces of the same thing' and maybe some stuff that helps for one could help for the other too.. There are things like EFT (emofree.com) that might perhaps help with both, or other stuff too.. (do your research on that though) Maybe some programs against social anxiety could be helpful to you too? You don't know until you try things out..

Can you talk to your family doctor again and ask him to send you for a 2nd opinion (& tell him what you told us)?

I've heard of many misdiagnoses in the mental health field.. sometimes people also have like Lyme disease or celiac or food sensitivity/allergy or something else entirely..