Not showing interest for fear of making women uncomfortable

I've had this problem for a while. My AvPD manifests by making me feel like a nuisance a lot of the time. I was making good progress overcoming it a few years ago, but then ended up confirming my fears with one particular woman (which I posted about here). Since then, I've been very hesitant about showing any interest in women.

I'm not saying that I would have approached anyone back then. Just that I was starting to show some attention at a distance, like making eye-contact and smiling, as well as getting some attention back. It was really helping my self-esteem.

I've tried to do the same recently, but I look away as soon as they notice. I can't seem to maintain that eye-contact anymore.

I also find myself worrying about showing interest if I'm getting to know someone. I try not to seem too keen when talking to them, and I don't maintain eye-contact during pauses in conversation, like I've noticed other people do.

(It's funny that I'd actually flirted a little and asked someone out, not long after the incident I mentioned above. The woman I asked out didn't give a bad reaction, and we still got on well aftwerwards. I even contacted her a few months ago to see how she was getting along. I've been finding it hard getting a job and she suggested I should try to get a job where she works. She even offered to help me find one.)

Any words of wisdom? Or does anyone else have the same problem for the same, or similar, reason?

MGTOW. It's NOT a hate movement, it's to protect your safety and sanity.

Showing some interest by looking but looking away is how I acted before I got married. It takes an assertive woman to date me because I lack something critical required to initiate and/or know when to initiate and/or know how to initiate. In my youth, tagging along with an extrovert helped. Nowadays, it would probably take a bit of alcohol and a wing man.

Parador wrote:MGTOW. It's NOT a hate movement, it's to protect your safety and sanity.

This explains some other posts.

iabsurdlyexist wrote:Showing some interest by looking but looking away is how I acted before I got married. It takes an assertive woman to date me because I lack something critical required to initiate and/or know when to initiate and/or know how to initiate. In my youth, tagging along with an extrovert helped. Nowadays, it would probably take a bit of alcohol and a wing man.

Parador wrote:MGTOW. It's NOT a hate movement, it's to protect your safety and sanity.

This explains some other posts.

I've known LOTS of crazy people - more than half of them are women.