What Is Avoidant Personality Disorder?

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Those with personality disorders often think that a personal development plan will not be of benefit to them. However, it can greatly aid with your treatment and helping to alleviate certain symptoms and this is very true for avoidant personality disorder. In fact, it can help to set the groundwork for ensuring that your treatment plan is effective.

People with avoidant personality disorder go through their life experience a pattern of feeling inadequate, being extremely shy and being hypersensitive to rejection. Of the adult population in the United States, approximately five percent have this disorder. Having a general understanding of this disorder will help you when it comes time to make your personal development plan.

Looking at the Causes of this Disorder

When it comes to avoidant personality disorders, researchers have yet to find the cause. Environmental and genetic factors are believed to play a role in the development of this disorder. Experts often look at risk factors, but with this disorder, there is not set list of risk factors that determine if someone will develop this disorder.

It is important to note that those with this disorder were almost always shy as children. However, it is important that you know that not all shy children develop avoidant personality disorder as adults. The lack of a concrete cause and risk factors can make it harder to diagnose this condition and it makes it nearly impossible to determine whether someone is likely to develop the disorder once they reach adulthood.

Exploring the Symptoms of this Disorder

People with this condition often find it hard to interact in a work and social environment. This is due to fear of things like:

Disapproval
Criticism
Rejection
Embarrassment

Those with this disorder might not believe that people actually like them and want them around. This causes this to always be alert and waiting for people to criticize them or reject them. In some cases, neutral actions and comments that are not meant to be negative may be seen as negative to someone with this disorder.

How Professionals Diagnose Avoidant Personality Disorder

Diagnosing this disorder starts with determining when it began because it has to occur in early adulthood at the latest. There are a number of symptoms that professionals are looking for, and to be diagnosed, you have to have a minimum of four of these symptoms:

You avoid work situations where you have to have contact with others because you fear disapproval, criticism or rejection
Due to fear of being humiliated or ridiculed, you hold back in relationships
Due to feelings of inadequacy, you do not fully engage in social situations
Due to fear of embarrassment, you avoid personal risks or new activities
Until you know people definitely like you, you do not get involved with others
Your thoughts are dominated by fear of rejection and criticism in social situations
You think that you are unappealing to others, inferior to others and socially inept

The Treatments Used for this Disorder

Therapy and medications are used to treat this disorder. Psychotherapy is the most commonly used treatment because it is typically the most effective. The purpose is to ensure that you can see your unconscious beliefs and how they are affecting you. It also helps you to better function socially and at work. There are two types that might be used:

Cognitive behavioral therapy: This is a talk therapy that aids you in seeing your unhealthy thought processes and beliefs.
Psychodynamic therapy: This works to see how your past experiences are causing your current behavior.

If medications are prescribed, they are typically used to reduce how sensitive you are to rejection. Medications are only used to complement your therapy and not as a replacement.

Your personal development plan can help you to target the symptoms that are causing you the most trouble. It also helps you to see which treatments are helping you the most with your symptoms.

As you can see, having a personal development plan for avoidant personality disorder can be very beneficial. It gives you the chance to really focus on improving the symptoms that are causing you the most issue. It can also help you and your healthcare provider to determine the efficacy of your treatment. You will be able to monitor how your symptoms are affecting you and be able to determine how this condition is affecting your life. It also helps you to identify coping strategies to improve your life despite this disorder.

References:

http://www.healthline.com/health/avoidant-personality-disorder#Description1

http://lacodependencia.org/que-es-la-dependencia-emocional/