By spending the majority of her time alone, she avoids all rejection and judgement. In the case study it states that she always appears very aloof, very distant and will never engage in any conversation once the classes are over. Another essential point of the avoidant personality disorder is being unwilling to get involved with others unless a certainty the individual is aware they will be liked. This is expressed in the case study when it says that she is seen in a pub or the library, but she is always on her own. However, she does look over. This could be because she wants to join in with the group, hence the looking over, but she does not feel like she will be liked. Therefore, she does not join in.
Another feature of the avoidant personality disorder is viewing the self as socially inept, personally unappealing and or inferior to others. A key sign of this in the case study is when Sarah is asked to join in with another person's group she always says no. Then gets up and leaves without saying anything, and she never smiles. This all seems to point to the fact that she feels inferior to others as she does not want to join in with the activities of the group, because she does not feel like she will fit in. .
Although the above behaviours seem fitting to the avoidant personality disorder, they can and may well be interpreted as other disorders. For example; her avoidance of others and desire to be alone, which according to the avoidant personality disorder expresses her lack of desire for social interaction, due to lack of self-confidence and self-belief, could been seen as a fear of abandonment rather than social anxiety. She could be terrified of forming a relationship, as a person may leave her to be on her own, which is a particular characteristic of the borderline personality disorder which belongs to cluster B. .
On the other hand, her withdrawal from social situations could be interpreted as a behaviour of the narcissistic personality disorder also from cluster B.
