coyote
Well-known member
I recently came across this forum while trying to learn more about Social Phobia, Social Anxiety Disorder, and/or Avoidant Personality Disorder (by the way, can anyone tell me what the distinctions are, if any, between these things?)
Just for reference, I'm 45 years old. I've been continually crashing my life into the ground repeatedly over the years, and haven't been able to figure out exactly what I was doing wrong. I was diagnosed with ADHD a few years ago, along with depression. I was taking meds for a couple years and saw a couple of therapists, but was having trouble making progress.
The last therapist I saw, briefly, a year ago seemed to offer some new hope. He ran me through a number of tests/surveys, etc. and concluded that while I may or may not suffer from ADHD, he believed most of the problems I had coping with life and failing to properly care for myself stemmed from Social Anxiety and/or Avoidant Personality Disorder. He urged me to speak to my prescribing psychiatrist about anti-anxiety meds. And he outlined a course of treatment that sounded promising.
Right about the same time, I changed jobs. It is really much for the better, except that I no longer had health insurance and couldn't afford to see the doctor. And, of course, I got really busy with the new job and got completely side tracked....until I started crashing again.
So, here I am, looking for answers - alot of what I am reading here and elsewhere about this condition is really hitting home. This is good! You can't overcome obstacles that you don't know are there - you just keep bumping into them. Now maybe by identifying them, I can figure out how to overcome them.
For instance, I now see clearly that I have purposefully been avoiding the whole issue of health care, and have already begun taking steps to get insured so that I can return to therapy.
Sorry, I haven't been very specific about about my experiences in this post. Another thing I'm working on is battling the tendency to insist on perfection in every little thing I do (uhm...I just retyped that last sentence about 20 times trying to get it right). So I'm doing this is fast as I can and will just call it good enough.
Nice to meet everyone,
Thanks!
Just for reference, I'm 45 years old. I've been continually crashing my life into the ground repeatedly over the years, and haven't been able to figure out exactly what I was doing wrong. I was diagnosed with ADHD a few years ago, along with depression. I was taking meds for a couple years and saw a couple of therapists, but was having trouble making progress.
The last therapist I saw, briefly, a year ago seemed to offer some new hope. He ran me through a number of tests/surveys, etc. and concluded that while I may or may not suffer from ADHD, he believed most of the problems I had coping with life and failing to properly care for myself stemmed from Social Anxiety and/or Avoidant Personality Disorder. He urged me to speak to my prescribing psychiatrist about anti-anxiety meds. And he outlined a course of treatment that sounded promising.
Right about the same time, I changed jobs. It is really much for the better, except that I no longer had health insurance and couldn't afford to see the doctor. And, of course, I got really busy with the new job and got completely side tracked....until I started crashing again.
So, here I am, looking for answers - alot of what I am reading here and elsewhere about this condition is really hitting home. This is good! You can't overcome obstacles that you don't know are there - you just keep bumping into them. Now maybe by identifying them, I can figure out how to overcome them.
For instance, I now see clearly that I have purposefully been avoiding the whole issue of health care, and have already begun taking steps to get insured so that I can return to therapy.
Sorry, I haven't been very specific about about my experiences in this post. Another thing I'm working on is battling the tendency to insist on perfection in every little thing I do (uhm...I just retyped that last sentence about 20 times trying to get it right). So I'm doing this is fast as I can and will just call it good enough.
Nice to meet everyone,
Thanks!
