Avoidant Personality Disorder
Avoidant personality disorder (APD or AvPD) or Anxious personality disorder (APD), is a personality disorder characterized by a pervasive pattern of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, extreme sensitivity to negative evaluation and avoiding social interaction. People with avoidant personality disorder often consider themselves to be socially inept or personally unappealing, and avoid social interaction for fear of being ridiculed, humiliated, or disliked. They typically present themselves as loners and report feeling a sense of alienation from society.
Avoidant personality disorder usually is first noticed in early adulthood, and is associated with perceived or actual rejection by parent or peers during childhood. Whether the feeling of rejection is due to the extreme interpersonal monitoring attributed to people with the disorder is still disputed.
Avoidant personality style versus avoidant personality disorder
It should be noted that many more people have avoidant styles as opposed to having the personality disorder. The major difference has to do with how seriously an individual's functioning in everyday life is affected. The avoidant personality can be thought of as spanning a continuum from healthy to pathological. The avoidant style is at the healthy end, while the avoidant personality disorder lies at the unhealthy end.
Characteristics of the Avoidant Personality Style:
Comfortable with habit, repetition, and routine
Prefer the known to the unknown
Close allegiance to family and/or a few close friends; tend to be homebodies
Sensitive and concerned about what others think of them. Tend to be self-conscious and worriers
Very discreet and deliberate in dealing with others
Tend to maintain a reserved, self-restrained demeanor around others
Tend to be curious and can focus considerable attention on hobbies and avocations; however, a few engage in counterphobic coping behaviors
Characteristics of the Avoidant Personality Disorder:
Exaggerate the potential difficulties, physical dangers, or risks involved in doing something ordinary, but outside their usual routines
Either have no close friends or confidants or only one, other than first-degree relatives; avoid activities that involve significant interpersonal contact
Unwilling to become involved with people unless certain of being liked; easily hurt by criticism or disapproval
Fear being embarrassed by blushing, crying, or showing signs of anxiety in front of other people
Reticent in social situations because of a fear of saying something inappropriate or foolish, or of being unable to answer a question
Tend to be underachievers, and find it difficult to focus on job tasks or hobbies
Causes
The cause of avoidant personality disorder is not clearly defined, and may be influenced by a combination of social, genetic, and biological factors. The disorder may be related to temperamental factors that are inherited. Specifically, various anxiety disorders in childhood and adolescence have been associated with a temperament characterized by behavioral inhibition, including features of being shy, fearful, and withdrawn in new situations
Many people diagnosed with avoidant personality disorder have had painful early experiences of chronic parental criticism and rejection. The need to bond with the rejecting parents makes the avoidant person hungry for relationships but their longing gradually develops into a defensive shell of self-protection against repeated parental criticisms