| Social Anxiety Disorder
(Social Phobia) |
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About Avoidant Personality Disorder
If you have had generalised social anxiety for most of your life you may think that others
see you as too quiet or boring. You may avoid meeting other people and not want to risk
telling others much about yourself in case they reject you. If you have these sorts of
fears, you may have a more severe social anxiety, called avoidant personality disorder.
About one-third of people seen at specialist anxiety clinics for treatment of social
anxiety have avoidant personality disorder. If you have this more severe social anxiety,
it is very likely that you will have experienced episodes of depression
(see complications).
Coping with severe social anxiety for most of your life may have badly affected your
self esteem. You may also have become quite socially isolated. If you have spent many
years avoiding social situations or speaking to certain people because of fears about
what others think, you need to be aware that it will probably take longer to improve with
treatment (see cognitive behavioural therapy).
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