Imagine you are in a pool. Only this pool is not filled with water. It is filled with the most disgusting, most awful sludge you can think of. Like tar that is put down on roads before they throw down gravel.

You are completely naked in this pool. The very smell is so disgusting that it makes you vomit. The tar is the blackest black you have ever seen. It’s not a smooth black substance, but it’s full of lots of very jagged rocks.

The rocks tear at your skin and open up wounds. The very act of being in this sludge is unbearable. You can’t swim out of pool, and you can’t tread water. You can’t do anything to try to escape.

The only thing you can do is stay in this pool of sludge. Staying in the pool is such a vile experience that it makes you throw up repeatedly. The act of throwing up makes your body convulse which causes you to sink.

Any movement at all only makes you sink deeper. It is as if there are unseen hands that are reaching for you trying to pull you under to your death.

There is no escape. If you stay in this pool, you will die. If you try to escape from this pool, you will die. The only thing you can do is try to stay as still as you can and just try to survive - day in day out, 365 days a year, year after year.

This is the reality of an Avoidant Personality. This is the reality of the day-to-day existence of someone suffering from Avoidant Personality.

The sludge in the pool is Major Depression, Severe Social Anxiety, Fear of People, Fear of Going Outside, Extreme Sensitivity to Criticism, Extreme Sensitivity to Rejection, Hatred of Oneself and a host of other symptoms.

The rocks in the sludge and the feeling of hands trying to pull you under is the feeling of Constant Criticism, Constant Rejection, and the Constant Feeling of Hatred and Judgement that the one with Avp feels coming from everyone everywhere all at the same time.

If you have Avoidant Personality, or suspect you have Avoidant Personality, the 1st thing that you need to know is that You are not alone! There are over 400 million people worldwide that suffer from this condition!

We are here to offer you hope, help, and support.