TO BE CLEAR I AM QUEER AND NOT A BIGOT

I really want to partake more in the queer scene here but it brings me nothing but intense anxiety. It makes me want to pack everything up and never be seen again. I feel so out of place and like I don’t belong. I feel like an annoying outsider under the bleachers watching the cool kids.

Just sucks since my fiancee is heavily in the scene and wants to help, but my anxiety is so intense I can’t.

I'm burned out from caregiving for more than half a decade. I'm still caregiving. I'm beyond burned out. But all the ways people get over burn out -- hobbies, friends, travel -- exhausts and terrifies me. I'm too avoidant and unlikable for friends, I'm too avoidant for travel, I'm too avoidant and self critical for art or even watching fucking movies.

Been isolating more and more in recent years, and I’ve noticed that my everyday is like in slow motion. I take baths for more than an hour. When I occasionally cook it can take hours, and my dad noted how I do everything so slowly. And taking my dog to a walk also feels like a whole ritual. Other than doing every small mundane thing so slowly it also feels very taxing. Like, after doing these things I am so tired sometimes. I guess it’s mostly mental because it’s just like my mind is numb and weary. It also makes going outside for anything totally exhausting, if not depressing. I just wonder if it’s something others experience.

I got a job at a famous chain that just opened its first location in my state. It's a food place and people travel to come to these new locations as its very famous and they like to take pictures and record to document their trip.

Today was my first official day and I was directly filmed by at least 6 customers that I assisted, and indirectly filmed by many more. I feel so helpless because I obviously can't tell them to stop. It was my fault for working here but I didn't realize the significance of the place until I was offered the job, and I've been unemployed for months so I couldn't pass it up. It makes me so insanely uncomfortable and I'm holding back tears after every interaction when it happens. This job is pretty good so far other than this.

We just opened so I'm just hoping this dies down, but I know it will continue to happen at least occasionally. My bosses encourage the filming for obvious reasons. I can't blame them but I hate it. I'm terrified to end up on social media. Terrified. People tell me I'm beautiful but every picture of myself makes me sick to my stomach and causes immediate tears.

I don't think there is anything I can do about this besides asking my coworker to take over for me when I notice the filming, but it's hard to find anybody who isn't busy and we all need to stay as productive as we can while we're so busy. So idk. I can't quit and don't really want to, so it is what it is :/

Just venting here. I’m trying to do some exposure therapy on my own because I can’t afford therapy right now, but it’s so frustrating how even something as simple as replying to a text can make me anxious for days. For some reason I can’t bring myself to even open the message, so I end up putting it off, and the longer I wait the guiltier I feel. I know it’s such a small thing and that I should just reply, but somehow I can’t make myself do it. I keep thinking about it over and over until I finally manage to get myself to respond. It’s exhausting how much anxiety something so trivial can cause me. It’s exhausting to be so low-functioning.

I'm like 90% sure I have AvPD, but it's so difficult to get an official diagnosis in Canada, and I feel like getting a formal diagnosis could help me a lot in terms of understanding what I have been struggling with and that it is a legit mental disorder and it's not just in my head. Also, I think it's useful to know if I have this PD to make it easier for people to understand why I am the way that I am. I went to talk to my family doctor a few days ago, and I struggled to explain my symptoms properly, and I forgot to mention a lot of the symptoms that I think are relevant. I know they usually have to rule out the physical causes first, so he just gave me blood work and a PHQ-9 to fill out. I feel like if I had communicated well, he would have referred me to a psychiatrist or a psychologist to be waitlisted at least. I can't afford private assessments either. I feel stuck and my dad has been really uhm worried because he lately noticed how much of a bum I really am for not having any friends and basically spending my days doing nothing other than studying. This may be subjective and I rlly don't like self-diagnosing, but I read the diagnostic criteria for AvPD from the DSM-5-TR and it makes a lot of sense why I experience everything mentioned there.

Personally I don’t. I told my husband before we were married right when I received the diagnosis. I also told one of my parents. That’s it.

I don’t see a benefit to telling people. Personality disorders are heavily stigmatized and I wouldn’t want people to treat me any differently if they did know.

24M. Don't really have backstory or additional context for this one. It's just been a really long time since I've communicated with anyone really, so I thought Instead of going off on my own and isolating like I usually do, maybe I could just make an effort to reach out for once. To a group of people who share the same issues and struggles, maybe?

Comment, DM, it doesn't really matter honestly. I just think it would be nice to not talk to myself for once lol.

I had a fairly normal childhood and ideally shouldnt be suffering from avoidance but i still do. idk why . Why do i still have it ? i thought AvPD was cause due to some parent giving you trauma in your childhood . Nothing like that happened to me ever as far as i can remember.

Just not ready to drop a character analysis. Has anyone else seen this movie? Yes she went through something traumatic and ran away from her life basically but there were some depictions of avoidance in this movie that I really related to.

Hello. I've recently moved into a college apartment situation a few months ago. There are three people in my apartment, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a kitchen. I mostly stay in my room, but I don't have a kitchen in my room, obviously.

My roommate really enjoys being in the kitchen. Which is awesome, I don't care, but knowing that they're in the kitchen, I don't want to go up the hall and have to talk to them.

The first few days of moving in, I remember being very hungry all the time, but now all feelings of hunger have left me and I never feel hungry or really eat anymore because I don't want to talk to my roommate.

I can't be the crazy person who is, "Don't be in the kitchen please it stresses me out" but... I don't know. I find myself becoming concerned about my complete loss of appetite