What Is Avoidant Personality Disorder?

Avoidance personality disorder is a type of personality disorder characterized by comprehensive social suppression, lack of ability, and extreme sensitivity to negative evaluations. Patients begin to show shyness, loneliness, fear of seeing strangers, and fear of strange environments in early childhood or childhood. These issues in adulthood adversely affect patients' social and professional functions. Such patients always feel that they lack social skills, are unattractive, and are disadvantaged in all aspects, so they appear overly sensitive and inferior. Low self-esteem and over-sensitivity, fearing that they will be rejected by others, makes it difficult for patients to establish close relationships with others. ^[1]

DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for avoidable personality disorder ^[2]

Some theorists believe that biochemical abnormalities, disease-prone genes, learned fears, and upsetting thought processes are the causes of avoidable personality disorders. However, the existence of a direct causal link between these causes and this obstacle requires a large number of empirical studies to test (Barlow, 2001).

Many scholars believe that the shame of people with this obstacle is caused by their childhood childhood experiences and parental reprimand. They find that if they are often ridiculed by their parents, children will internalize this humiliating experience, forming a negative self-intention, thinking that they are not worth being loved, and they do not believe that they will really be loved by others.

In one study, patients with this disorder recalled more of the family atmosphere that frustrated them during childhood and did not consider parents to love or be proud of themselves (Barlow, 1995 ). However, the results of this study must be interpreted with caution, as this is a retrospective study, relying on the results obtained from the subject's memory report. Perhaps the patient is very sensitive to how others treat themselves, so the circumstances of his recall report may be far from the actual situation. However, the results of this study are meaningful for us to understand more about the causes of this obstacle in the future. ^[3]

For this type

Basic introduction:
The visitor was a girl who was in the second year of high school. She had a friend who had attended school with her since she was a child. Before the high school, the relationship between the two has been very good. Since then, after the same high school, the relationship between her and the friend has gradually become cold. After that, at the same time, her academic performance was not as good as before. In addition, she felt that her friend had been hitting her intentionally or unintentionally. When she was studying seriously, this friend always discussed with her classmates from time to time. "It's outdated by rote memorization in high school, and I don't care about the kind of exams that rely on memorization." . The girl herself felt that these words of the friend were told to her, and she was deliberately hitting her. Since then, the relationship between the two has gradually estranged, and has remained deadlocked until now. Recently, the two of them are seated closer. Invisiblely, she cares more about the friend's view of herself. She always feels that she is being influenced by her friends, which also affects her academic performance. The visitor did not know how to solve this problem. At the same time, the visitor also had other problems, such as blushing and nervousness when he went to the stage to speak alone; he slept late at night and woke up during the day and always worried that the learning efficiency of the day would decline. She was always worried that insomnia would affect her body. But the more I think about it, the more I cannot get rid of it.

Visitor analysis and diagnosis:
The girl belongs to avoidant personality disorder. The greatest characteristics of avoidance personality are behavioral atrophy and psychological inferiority. When faced with difficulties, they generally adopt an evasive attitude or incompetence. The main performance characteristics are: it is easy to be harmed by criticism or disapproval of others; In addition, there are no good friends or close people (or only one); Withdrawal of behavior, always avoid social activities or jobs that require interpersonal communication; Psychological inferiority, always silent in social situations, afraid of making people laugh , Avoid answering questions; sensitive and shy, afraid to show embarrassment in front of others; always do exaggerated potential difficulties, dangers or possible risks when doing things that are not in their own routine.
After being criticized and accused, people with evasive personality disorder often feel that their self-esteem is hurt and they are suffering. It is difficult to get rid of the pain. They are afraid of participating in social activities, worrying about being ridiculed for inappropriate words and deeds, and worrying too much about their emotional state, which often makes them anxious.
Psychologists believe that avoidance personality disorder is mainly caused by inferiority, and there are several reasons for this: Self-awareness is too low to underestimate oneself. Everyone always knows himself through the mirror of others. If others make a lower evaluation of themselves, especially the evaluation of a more authoritative person, it will affect the understanding of themselves, thus underestimating themselves. Negative self-suggestions inhibit self-confidence. Because of lack of self-awareness, I often feel "I can't," which can inhibit self-confidence, increase tension, generate psychological burden, and the work effect is necessarily poor. The impact of frustration. Some people have high nerve sensitivity and low tolerance, and slight setbacks will give them a heavy blow, and they will become negatively pessimistic and humble.

Treatment and recommendations:
(1) The seeker must eliminate inferiority complex, be good at affirming himself, don't underestimate himself because of the accusations of his friends, treat himself as useless, and strengthen self-confidence.
(2) Carry out positive self-suggestion and self-encouragement, and believe that things are artificial. When you feel lack of self-confidence in a situation, you might as well brave yourself: "I will succeed!"
(3) Overcome the obstacles of interpersonal communication, create more opportunities for yourself to speak in public, dare to express your thoughts, and communicate and chat with people around you.
(4) Participate in more sports activities to reduce mental stress through physical labor.
(5) The seeker can try to change the learning method and face the learning with a calm heart. Don't compare with others. Just compare yourself with your previous academic performance. Encourage yourself if you make a little progress.
(6) Don't focus too much on your friends. You can ask the teacher to help you change your seat so that you can focus more on your studies. Or talk to your friends, and maybe all misunderstandings will be eliminated.
(7) Be fully prepared before giving a speech on the stage, give yourself some psychological hints; exercise a few times just fine. In the end, you should relax your mind appropriately, such as going to some sports activities, listening to music, reading magazines, soothing the tension, letting go of your learning burdens, and the symptoms of insomnia will ease.

1. There is no decisive link between fear of communication and avoidance of personality disorders. Avoidance personality refers more to an avoidance of intimate relationships and feelings, and thus to an avoidance of social interaction activities. If you are willing and want to establish good social relationships and intimacy with others, it may be a social disorder, such as social fear. Don't think of the problem too seriously.

2. Human temperament has been differentiated at birth, and personality has been formed on this basis. If you have been shy and introverted since childhood, you can say that this potential exists in your personality. You need to perform a series of social training. Start with the smooth communication with a friend, when you are no longer nervous to communicate with a friend, increase to communicate with two friends, and so on. There are many books on the market that teach breathing and relaxation methods. You can use these books to relax your nervousness when talking to people. Perform a conversion slowly.

3. If your social avoidance is very serious, then there is no way to get good results by adjusting it alone. Behind your fear of talking to many people, there must be a reason behind it. Maybe you have been frustrated in social situations, you may have been traumatized in other intimate relationships in childhood, or you may have been sexually indecent. These are all possible . It is unclear what your reason is. If it is a social avoidance induced by these psychological reasons, then you must ask a counselor to make an effective adjustment. ^[3]