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View Full Version : Is this part of anxiety too?



hippysilverware
01-23-2014, 07:24 PM
I'd been reading the messages in the forums for a little while, and realized I didn't really know how to relate to a whole lot here. So I took some little online diagnoses test, just to humor myself, and the only thing I scored high on was something called Avoidant Personality Disorder. Well I decided to look it up, and sure enough I matched that pretty alright. Only it started me thinking on whether or not my whole make-up is based off of a disorder.

I've always had a general idea of what I wanted in friends. It was something that worked out for me for a long time when I was younger, but now I find myself talking to no one really. I had a friend I've known 15 years and she came back from Hawaii to visit and never came by to see me. Didn't even bother calling to say she wasn't coming the day she said. I had another friend I've known a long time, and although I understand there's a lot going on in his life, I get the feeling he hasn't got much reason to speak to me anymore since he's gotten his life back together so to speak. There are two sisters I've been friends with twelve years that barely speak to me, and when they do it's only to ask to hang out if I'm in town. The list goes on like that.

When I was younger, the friends I wanted to have were the kind of friends that talked to you when they were down, listened to you when they were up. Ones that were comfortable sharing their general thoughts with you, that were excited to tell you about even something as small as a song they found. After reading up on the disorder, I couldn't help but wonder if I was asking a lot. Most people seem to just want people they can go to the movies/shopping etc. with, and that's about it. I wondered if the reason I want people to share all that with me, or to talk so often with me, is just because I'm worried they're abandoning me if they don't?

Even when these people talk to me, I still feel lonely. It used to be that we all /did/ talk the way that I wanted out of friends, but now it seems like a very casual acquaintance with everyone. It seems only like they talk to me to have someone to listen to them, or hang out with them; but no one ever hears me out anymore. I can come up with a lot of reasons for it, but it's /those/ that sound like excuses. I can't help but think there's something wrong with me; but if there were, why does everyone talk to me anyway? And only when they're lonely or bored or any number of things that make me feel like a used rag.

Yet I have (at least I feel like) a decent handful of friends to feel like what they do is normal.. and maybe it's just the way I think. I thought it'd be a good idea to "vanish" so to speak. My number is getting changed in a few days, I thought it might be a good opportunity to hide myself away for a good while. I actually feel a lot better when I'm alone, I don't have to ask myself these things.

NeverToo...Fear
01-23-2014, 09:02 PM
A Henry David Thoreau quote comes to mind when I finish reading your post: "I never found the companion that was so comparable as solitude."

What you say about friends.. that term is used loosely nowadays.. and when it comes to friends with me, well, I tend to give more than I get. I don't think anything is wrong with you. People probably talk to you because YOU listen and care. It's a quality lot's of people would like to have.

Sometimes, a good break from people can do a lot of good, especially if you are feeling like a used rag more often than not. You're taking it all in listening to other people's problems and no one is there to hear yours. It can build up.

I don't know what else to say other than don't let a disease/personality disorder define you. It's just something to add to your uniqueness.. :) You say you have an avoidant personality based on the online tests. It is something I think I have as well. It's not always easy, but I try to recognize it and accept it as something that is a part of me and I work on it from there, realizing that it's going to make me think and act a certain way..

I didn't think you were asking too much in what you wanted out of friend. I actually thought it was nice and reasonable. Sharing little things is nice and makes a friendship comfortable and stronger. Nothing wrong with wanting that. But that being said, you can have different friends for different reasons.. some people only want certain things and not everyone want's the same thing.

hippysilverware
01-23-2014, 09:42 PM
^^; I was kind of excited about that quote. I started reading Walden and put it down a couple of weeks ago (it's difficult for me haha..) it's a sign! Heh. I need to pick it back up.

Thank you so much for saying that. It honestly helped me feel a lot better and think a little clearer. I've been thinking about this for the past couple of days and I couldn't move past the thought that there's something irreparably wrong with me. I do realize that there are things I do that are part of that disorder, but separating the "this" from "that" is hard when I have nothing to go on and I've had it for so long. I felt like I knew what was what already, but reading about APD made me feel like everything I did was related to it.

I understand... I keep reminding myself of that. It's just that, for the one girl and the one boy I'd been friends with for so long, they both lived up to those "standards" I had set for all the years I'd know them. Then it seemed that so abruptly they became so unresponsive that I worried maybe it was /my/ way of thinking that was wrong. That it was the kind of eventuality all friendships wind up at. You're right though, that I should take a break; that may very well be what they're doing and feeling like this won't do much. It's hard not to harp on it sometimes.

Thanks again for taking the time out. It really helped me.