1; How many close friends do you have? One
2; Do you hate yourself and to what degree? I hate many aspects of myself, some rather more intensely than others.
3; How strong is your aversion to physical contact? I don't believe I have any particular aversion to physical contact.
4;Do you have difficulties making eye contact? Yes, extreme difficulty. Walking down streets, shopping, public transport... they're some of the moments when it becomes most acute and painful.
Sometimes, when I'm down, or when someone close to me, be it a parent or sibling says something that upsets me/makes me angry, I just can't bring myself to look at them either.
5; Do you hate having your photo taken? Yes.
6; Do you feel worthlesss? Yes.
7; Has anyone ever said they loved you? Yes.
8; Have you told anyone you loved them? Yes.
9; Do you think you are ugly? Yes.
10; Do you think you are below average intelligence? I think I'm just average. Certainly, my academic achievements or lack thereof would point to that.
11;Have you seriously considered suicide? Because I've never actually gotten to the point where I attempted suicide, I don't know if I can say I seriously considered it. But, I went through a very bad phase a few years back where... I thought about it every night and had a rough plan.
In the morning as I waited for my train to college, I sometimes thought about just hopping out. But I never did it, I never even pretended to do go through the lead up motions. So maybe I was just acting out in my head, imagining things being better.
That was my absolute rock bottom though. What upsets me the most is that nobody really knew. Nobody. Nobody tried to intervene and help me. They didn't because they couldn't see what was wrong with me. I made little cries of help, but they went unnoticed.
I remember my parents had relayed a story to me when I was much younger; a client of theirs had come in, whose son had committed suicide. My folks said he just couldn't understand, "why?". They said he was utterly broken by it, and ventured to suggest that the son was selfish - a common complaint I've heard from people in this country.
Well, when I was at rock bottom, and wondering why to live, the only reason that came up was guilt. I didn't want to hurt my family, but that was severely tested at times - living for someone elses sake is not enough in and of itself. People need to understand that before labelling people who commit suicide selfish.
Anyway - I'm well out of that phase, I took no meds, have had no councilling, I just got out of it. My brain readjusted itself, and now my outlook is roughly "I don't want to die yet, I want to live a little and see the world. I've experienced too little."
12; Do you have major difficulties initiating romantic encounters with the opposiate sex? Yes. I have a tendancy to pre-emptively cut/screw up any chances of romance.
13; Roughly how old are you? Mid 20's.
14; What made you Avoidant, briefly? Partly down to my (over) sensitivity, my lifelong ill ease with my many shortcomings and the way people treated me.
15; Are you afraid to fail and succeed? I'm afraid to try.
16;Are you bitter and cynical? About myself? Yes. About the world? No. Actually, I'm relatively positive when it comes to my outlook on life. I try to think the best about people and give them the benefit of the doubt.
17; Are you open to the idea of suicide? For me? Not anymore, I hope it continues.
18; Do you find it difficult to trust people? Hmm. I only have one close friend, I trust him implicitly. There's no-one else, outside of immediate family, who I'd trust.
19;What is your co-morbid disorder?(i.e. traits of SPD NPD OCD ect.) This is something I haven't really looked into, but I'm sure someone reading these responses will have suggestions
20; Do you have any hope left? Yes. While my imagination isn't quite as potent as it once was at helping me escape from reality, I still imagine being successful at something or other down the road. A lot of these fantasies have some minor grounding in reality, so that's hope.
21;Have you ever had sex? Yep.
22; If a comet has forecasted to destroy the Earth how would you feel? Fear, and some despair that for all our obvious faults as a species, there'll be no trace left of some of the beautiful things, like music and art.
And then loneliness. Thinking about it, I know I'd yearn to hold the only person I ever loved romantically, but she's moved on, so that wouldn't happen.
23; Are you prone to bouts of anger? Hmm. Inward directed anger, yes. But, as a rule, I don't really lose my temper with people at least not openly. I just wind up having arguments with myself.
24; Name your redeeming features? I've been told I'm good at councilling people, ironically.
25; Do you cry alot? Not anymore. I did when I was younger. The last time I cried was when my dog died a year or so ago. My granny died not long after that - I didn't cry once. How's that for messed up?
26; Whats your sexual orientation? Straight. But, bleh, I'm dubious about orientation. I've never been attracted to a male physically and I doubt I ever will, but I'm open to the possibility that I could be attracted to a male because of their personality, if that makes any sense.
27; Whats your gender? Male.
28; Are you often emotionally numb? In some respects, yes.
29; Are you jealous? I don't think so. If I do get a rare feeling of jealousy, it's sure to be kicked to touch by my own inner monologue.
30; How do you kill the boredom? Imagination and distractions. Many many distractions. When I can switch off my internal monologue, I read. I watch lots of old films. My first love is music.
I have a few creative interests like photography & things, but I'm not much good at any of them.
31; Are making the effort to fight this curse? I think siging up here is a sign that I am. I don't intend to wallow in self loathing for the rest of my life. I believe this condition is perfectly treatable given the right conditions.
32; If you knew for certain that souls exist would you sell your soul for ten years to true happiness? This is a bit too out there for me. Even if souls could be proven to exist, I'm not sure that true happiness could ever be
33; How intense is your social phobia? Right now, it's extremely bad. I'm not going out, apart from walks at night.