Avoidant personality disorder

A large number of people suffer from this disorder. The beginnings of the state are laid in childhood. After all, communication skills do not come to a child right away. However, even in kindergarten and school, a child may show timidity and fear of communication. If this condition is not noticed in time and not corrected, it will become fixed as a behavioral pattern.

Like all personality disorders, avoidant (avoidant, anxious) disorder causes a lot of trouble for a person. Because of the fear that accompanies social contacts, he cannot:

• to make friends,
• meet representatives of the opposite sex,
• apply for a job,
• carry out your work duties.

Avoidance disorder may coexist with other disorders:

• agoraphobia,
• panic disorder
• social phobia.

People with avoidant disorder also often suffer from an inferiority complex, internal tension, and have sleep disorders. They also have psychosomatic disorders:

• increased breathing and heart rate,
• increased sweating,
• dizziness,
• episodic chest pain,
• pressure surges,
• digestive disorders and gastrointestinal diseases.

Anxiety disorders affect approximately 2.5% of the population, although there are estimates with higher numbers. Men and women suffer from this syndrome with equal frequency.

Causes of avoidant personality disorder

The roots of this problem, like many other psychopathologies, often lie in childhood. For example, a child tries to do something on his own - dress, eat, ride a bike, and so on. If parents at this stage show overprotectiveness, do everything for him, constantly tell him that he will not succeed, that he will fall, that he is clumsy - this can become the impetus for the future development of avoidant personality disorder in the child.

The absolute indifference of parents and their ignorance of the child’s success also has a negative impact on the formation of personality. The child develops a kind of attitude: why should I try anything at all?

Treatment of patients with avoidant personality disorder

Long-term psychotherapy is indicated for patients with avoidant personality disorder, but not in an inpatient setting, but on an outpatient basis. The psychotherapist must win over the patient, discuss his fears with him, and motivate him to action. All life mistakes the patient makes are discussed during the appointment. The doctor teaches them to accept, to understand that these same mistakes are normal and inevitable in the life of every person.

Causes

There is no single cause of anxiety disorder. Undoubtedly, a lot depends on the upbringing of the child in the family. A similar syndrome can be caused by excessive parental care of the child and excessive criticism of his actions. These factors can give rise to an inferiority complex in the child - one of the fundamental factors influencing the development of the condition.

However, one should not discount the characteristics of the nervous system, which may be genetically determined. Avoidant individuals have excessively increased reactivity of the psyche and nervous system, which recognize relatively safe situations, such as communication, as threatening. This is also confirmed by the fact that anxious individuals often suffer from various phobias.

Examples of frightening phenomena

There are countless situations, objects, thoughts and physical sensations that a neurotic patient may avoid. Here are just some of the most common examples.

Situations.

• Queue at the supermarket.
• A visit to the hairdresser or dentist.
• Driving a car along an unfamiliar route.
• Staying at home alone.
• Distance from home.
• Travel by public transport.
• Public speaking.
• Making a phone call to a stranger.
• Applying to a salesperson in a store with a request to show or explain something.

Thoughts:

• about sex;
• that through negligence or intentionally you can cause harm to someone;
• about disasters and accidents that may happen to the person himself or his loved ones;
• about amputations and organ loss;
• about embarrassing situations that have occurred in the past or are hypothetical;
• about diseases, especially deadly ones;
• about divine punishment for sins;
• about the death of loved ones;
• about sexual orientation (your own or someone close to you).

Physical sensations:

• accelerated heartbeat;
• shortness of breath, feeling of lack of air;
• dizziness;
• weakness and lightheadedness;
• sweat, especially cold;
• nausea;
• "defocus" of vision.

Each individual may have his own phenomena, peculiar only to him, which he avoids. Therefore, it is impossible to re-clean everything.

If you want to get rid of your anxiety disorder,

then you should definitely write down as many examples of your avoidance as possible.

Compiling a complete list of objects is not always easy. Since escape can be veiled.

A person fears for his heart and health. Therefore, he does everything possible not to strain himself physically.

If he avoids fitness classes and knows perfectly well why, then it will not be difficult for him to understand the motives for his behavior. But it might be a little different.

A neurotic person who fears for his health can stubbornly ride a trolleybus 2 small stops from the metro to his home. Even in great weather. At the same time, he may sincerely feel that he is lazy. But in reality it will be avoiding physical activity that can “damage a bad heart.”

What is avoidance behavior?

Avoidance behavior is based on anxiety. When a person tries to get in touch with someone, he experiences severe anxiety, anxiety and excitement. As a result, he is too tense and cannot relax. When an interlocutor addresses a person, out of excitement, an anxious person may incorrectly perceive someone else’s speech. And when a person with IPD tries to speak himself, it comes out confused and incoherent. As a result, it seems that such a person really does not know how to communicate. And this reinforces the negative emotional reaction that arises in the process of communication.

Eventually, the person discovers that by avoiding behavior that involves contact with other people, he also avoids unpleasant stress. This is how the behavior pattern of an avoidant personality arises.

What is the danger of the symptom?

When a person is scared, he instinctively runs away. And then he tries to avoid the place and/or situation that he repented was dangerous. And it doesn’t matter whether the danger was real or imagined.

Not only people behave this way, but also animals in the wild. The hare, hearing the creak of branches behind him, immediately makes his feet. And in this way he often saves his life.

Fleeing is the most obvious simple and effective way to save yourself from danger. But with an anxious patient, this instinctive natural method of salvation plays a cruel joke - it does not give him the opportunity to get rid of chronic anxiety. On the contrary, escape and avoidance worsen the state of an anxious neurotic day by day.

The harmfulness of neurotic avoidance lies in the fact that a person runs away from an imaginary danger. Gradually, the number of dangerous places, situations and sensations increases. And it turns out that the neurotic already avoids almost everything. Sometimes life itself.

The main harms of avoidance behavior in any anxiety disorder (panic, generalized anxiety, social phobia, obsessive-compulsive, etc.) are as follows.

1. Flight and subsequent avoidance prevent anxiety from dissipating on its own, showing that it can go away on its own without causing any harm.
2. Such behavior does not allow the neurotic to truly deeply realize that his fear is just a fantasy. It seems that the person knows this, understands everything. But if he avoids the “danger,” his brain still considers it real. Even if the individual himself understood everything a long time ago.
3. Avoidance strengthens a person's perception that he is weak, dependent, and inadequate. And he makes him refuse to perform more and more actions, sometimes confining his life within the confines of an apartment, or even a room.

About the avoidant personality type

Most often, such persons are characterized by increased shyness, shyness, modesty, timidity, they are embarrassed in any unusual situation.

Avoidant individuals often have no friends and communicate only with their closest relatives. They often have a low opinion of themselves; they consider themselves ugly in appearance, losers, and socially unimportant people. At the same time, anxious individuals are extremely sensitive to criticism from others, not to mention ridicule.

Due to difficulties experienced in communication, avoidant individuals may consider themselves unsociable, persons “not of this world,” those whom everyone rejects. Many people convince themselves that they don’t need friends, buddies and life partners at all. But actually it is not. In his soul, an anxious person desires communication, but does not know how to overcome his fear of this process.

Symptoms of Anxious Personality Disorder

Symptoms of anxious personality disorder begin to become noticeable in late childhood or adolescence. It is from this period that the use of this diagnosis is legitimate. For younger ages, the concept of “character accentuation” is used.

People with anxious (avoidant) personality disorder are characterized by emotional hypersensitivity to negative evaluations and any criticism from others. They have a strong belief that their personality is unattractive and that they themselves are defective. As a result, 2 characteristic behavioral patterns are formed:

First behavioral pattern

The desire for complete and strict self-control combined with constant monitoring of the responses of people around them to their actions.

A person with an anxiety disorder craves communication, but considers his personality unattractive, so he spends all his attention trying to create an image of himself that is pleasant or at least acceptable in the eyes of others. In parallel, he constantly tries to “count” the response to this image in order to understand whether he succeeded in achieving his goal. This process requires enormous mental energy expenditure, which makes it very difficult for him to directly respond to what is happening and actively participate in social interaction. As a result, a second characteristic behavioral pattern arises.

Second behavioral pattern

Stiffness, excessive shyness, withdrawal when communicating.

Such a person may be slow to answer questions, misunderstand the essence of what was said, and distortly interpret what is happening. Indeed, there is an impression of reduced ability to communicate, which is perceived as reinforcing the idea of ​​oneself as an inferior, unattractive person, thus completing the circle of negative self-perception.

As a result of this “vicious circle” of distorted conclusions, a desire arises to protect oneself from a traumatic situation. This is how the characteristic desire for this disorder is formed to avoid social contacts with a simultaneous hidden desire for them. People with avoidant disorder often say that they feel alienated from society, and that they feel like individualists and “loners.”

Diagnostic criteria

The first necessary condition for making a diagnosis is the appropriate age. There must be general diagnostic criteria for personality disorder. And finally, the presence of three or more specific symptoms of anxious personality disorder:

• persistent general feeling of tension, anxiety, bad feelings;
• confidence in one’s social inadequacy, the unattractiveness of one’s personality; devaluation of one's own importance in comparison with other people;
• hypersensitivity to criticism addressed to oneself, fear of being rejected in situations of social interaction;
• reluctance to enter into relationships without guarantees of being liked;
• limited lifestyle due to the need for physical security;
• avoidance of social or professional activities that involve significant interpersonal contacts due to fear of criticism, disapproval, or rejection.

Psychotherapy as a method of help

If a person is suspected of having an avoidant personality disorder, it is customary to compensate for the symptoms of the pathology with psychotherapeutic practices. It should be taken into account that patients are usually fearful and extremely shy, so the simplest social interactions are difficult for them. Communication within society is a serious obstacle for such people. As a result, it is impossible to resort to one of the most effective methods of modern psychotherapy - group interaction.

Avoidant anxious personality disorder is treatable using cognitive behavioral group theory. This is due to the fact that the methodology works well when working with shy people. It is aimed at developing new social skills and abilities, which have a significant impact on human behavior, simplifying its functioning as an element of society.

Using "crutches"

Anxious neurotics are creative people with a rich imagination and well-developed resourcefulness. Therefore, they quickly figure out how to avoid the “danger” and at the same time accomplish what is necessary.

Usually, to solve this problem, they use “crutches” - certain objects, people, behavior that create the illusion that there was no avoidance, because some necessary action was completed. But in reality there was avoidance, only hidden.

The following can act as “crutches-objects and people”:

• reliable comrades, for example, parents who will accompany you somewhere or just be nearby;
• a mobile phone, a bottle of water, a chocolate bar and tranquilizers, which you must have with you at all times;
• headphones with your favorite music or any other distracting sound, etc.

Hidden avoidance also includes performing actions such as:

• calling a friend;
• breathing exercises and/or relaxation exercises;
• minimizing physical activity, for example, moving to a horizontal position;
• squeezing any objects;
• conjuring up peaceful pictures;
• convincing yourself that there is actually no anxiety;
• convincing yourself that everything will be fine;
• going to work;
• fixation of attention on a certain point, etc.

It is important to understand the difference between “hidden avoidance” and normal breathing exercises or having a cell phone in your pocket.

The harmful “avoidant” use of the listed objects, people and actions is indicated by dependence on them. And the instant anxiety relief they bring.

So all people nowadays carry a mobile phone with them. But a healthy person does not panic on the subway because he suddenly discovered that he forgot his gadget at home. This may be a little frustrating, but nothing more. But for a neurotic person who relied on the phone as a life-saving straw, the discovery that he is not nearby can drive him into a state of full-blown panic attack.

Doing relaxation exercises is helpful. But if a person is unable to survive any frightening situation without such exercise as preparation for the “test” or at the moment of anxiety itself, he still avoids what frightens him. Although he seems to be doing the things he is afraid of. But he does not live through a stressful situation, but avoids it by tensing and relaxing certain muscle groups.