Hi Baz
I haven't been avoiding (hee hee hee) responding to your messages, I've just been really busy on my various PD-related studies.
I'm glad you identify with the avoidant pd label. If you get a proper diagnosis, you might be able to get therapy and support that's more tailored to your needs.
10% of Britons have personality disorder, many of them sadly undiagnosed and suffering in silence (like all us parcopresis people).Those of us who go on to have children are desperately in need of support to create our own positive model of parenting. PD sufferers who are in denial about how ####ed up they are and who don't seek therapy, are in danger of presenting a warped view of the world to their kids and causing them to have PD aswell. British society is a ticking timebomb.
Also, more than 50% of inpatients on acute admission psychiatric wards (i was hospitalised for a week)are actually sufferers of PD (rather than 'properly mental' people like schizophrenics etc) who have been struggling to act normal all their lives, but its only after 30 years of suffering that they finally crack under the pressure of life and have a nervous breakdown.

Linked with personality disorder is the concept of 'schemas' which are the disordered templates that you will have created of how to deal with situations. eg if your mum smacked you when you did a poo, you will (incorrectly, though totally naturally) assume that pooing is a bad thing, and you will have the core belief that if you poo in public you will receive similar criticism/rejection. You will then develop the maladaptive coping strategy of never ever pooing outside your own home.
For more info re personality disorder, do look up the following sites:
www.schematherapy.com which has a link to Jeffrey Young
www.outofthefog.net for a list of 100 common PD maladaptive behaviours
www.personalitydisorderkuf.org for an example of their course

If any of you think you may have Personality Disorder, please go to your doctor and ask for a diagnosis. PD, like parcopresis, is a relatively new concept, and many health practitioners don't believe it exists yet. So we have to be pioneers and raise awareness of these disorders, so we can a) get other people diagnosed and treated early before the whole of their life ias ruined.
Thanks again Baz for creating this website and your book. And for the rest of you, remember, doctors and other people cannot read your mind. Don't be ashamed. If you need help, ASK FOR IT!