What Is Avoidant Personality Disorder?

Researchers estimate around 12.1% of the United States population wrestles with a phobia or high dislike of social events, situations, and circumstances at one point in their life or another. Yearly, about 7% of Americans struggle with similar social phobias, chronic anxieties, shyness, or avoidance. An avoidant personality disorder is not the same as a social anxiety disorder or extreme shyness but manifests identical symptoms in the individuals who wrestle with either condition. Symptoms of avoidant personality disorder, or AVPD, may include:

Feelings of inferiority
Reluctance to take risks
Reluctance to involving oneself in new activities
Fear of embarrassment
Personal judgments of social inadequacy, inferiority, or being unappealing
Hold back from forming intimate relationships
Consistently worrying about what others think of themselves or being likable enough
Avoids work situations that require contact with other people
Intense fear of disapproval or rejection
Severe preoccupation with how others perceive them

Individuals who struggle with avoidant personality disorders do not enjoy meeting new people unless they are 100% sure that they are predisposed to liking them. These individuals also tend to overanalyze other’s criticisms of how they handle work, what they like, or how they frequently act, becoming overrun by even the smallest of personal critiques. By definition, an avoidant personality disorder is a mental condition that consumes an individual with lifelong patterns of feeling shy, inadequate, or sensitive.

These individuals care deeply about how others perceive them and are extremely sensitive to even the slightest criticisms or rejections. Individuals with avoidant personality disorder fear rejection so significantly; they avoid making connections with others, preferring loneliness to the potential of being thought of in adverse conditions. Examples of avoidant personality disorder can include individuals avoiding attending parties where people they do not know will be present. They may seek or need additional verbal reassurance from peers or become agitated when facing a social inevitability.

Causes of Avoidant Personality Disorder

AVPD commonly co-occurs with seasonally affected disorders (SAD), depression, and substance abuse. In some cases, an avoidant personality disorder can manifest a higher risk for suicidal thoughts, ideation, or attempts of suicide. It may even work as a percussing predictor of on-setting chronic depression. AVPD is a relatively common disorder that can occur in a range of severities. The presence of an avoidant personality disorder in a person can onset feelings of intense distress, cause social impairments, and may even develop into disability.

Yet, even though AVPD conditions are commonly occurring, mental health professionals admit to delays in researching what causes avoidant personality disorder to develop or occur in an individual. Some studies speculate that AVPD is a condition that develops in early childhood, pointing out that symptoms of the personality issue manifest rapidly and remain a lifelong integral characteristic for those who wrestle with the disorder. Even so, there is still not much known about the causes of AVPD. Still, scientists believe that environmental factors, physical illness, personal appearance, genetics, early childhood developmental traumas, and growing environments may play a leading role in developing the mental health condition.

AVPD Treatment Options and Considerations

As a member of Cluster B personality disorders, little research on AVPD is complete. The causes of avoidant personality disorder are primarily unknown besides speculative attributions of life events inspiring the disorder’s effects on social interaction. Similarly, even though the symptoms and approximate duration of avoidant personality disorder side effects are well-known, researchers and mental health professionals have little to offer on the potential standards for streamlining AVPD treatment. Of course, this does not mean that there is no avoidant personality disorder treatment plan at all, simply that the presence of AVPD complicates an individual’s healing prospects, especially if they are also suffering from a drug or alcohol use issue.

Similar to other chronic mental health conditions, the approaches to treating AVPD vary depending on the individual. People who struggle with avoidant personality disorder on a singular basis will likely only need mild to intermediate therapy interventions. In contrast, others who wrestle with addiction, depression, or SAD alongside the personality disorder may require more extensive treatment plans to encourage healing.

Recovery and healing look different for everyone. Thus, even though there is no cure for AVPD or a regimented treatment plan with a recovery guarantee, clinicians still use well-known therapeutic methods today to help clients heal in as holistic a manner as possible. There is no AVPD specific treatment guide for mental health professionals to use in healing, but some therapies have proven helpful in the fight against avoidant personality disorder symptomology. These therapeutic methods include:

Cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques (CBT)
Interpersonal therapy
Talk therapy

Currently, there is no medication with FDA approval suitable for singular or aiding AVPD treatment. However, some experts find psychotropic pharmaceuticals usually utilized for treating SAD and some anti-depressants helpful to boost serotonin levels in clients who have an avoidant personality disorder. Mental health professionals also find that treating other co-occurring conditions can significantly positively impact the severity of an individual’s AVPD.

Drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers like St. John’s Recovery Place (SJRP) may not have a specific AVPD treatment guide in place for clients who wrestle with the condition. Still, they provide their clientele with access to various treatment regimens that can prove helpful in their overall healing.

SJRP is an addiction rehabilitation facility specializing in the holistic treatment of drug, alcohol, and co-occurring substance and mental health disorders. As a quality treatment team, SJRP staff members utilize traditional addiction recovery methods alongside alternative and complementary therapeutic approaches. The facility’s ultimate goal is to aid their clientele along their recovery journey so they may live happy, healthy, and productive lives once again.

To determine whether SJRP is the right treatment center for you or a loved one who struggles with addiction and AVPD, call 1-833-397-3422 to learn more about the center’s therapeutic approaches, campus grounds, staff team, and dedication to seeing you heal in as holistic a manner possible.

There is no cure for AVPD. But it is possible to beat addiction and significantly alleviate the symptoms of avoidant personality disorder so that you can live life to the fullest extent possible. The beginning of your recovery journey may be one simple phone call away. Call today to find out more about SJRP and how you can start treatment sooner than later. You will not regret taking the time to call.

References

NIH: National Institute of Mental Health: Transforming the Understanding and Treatment of Mental Illnesses. Social Anxiety Disorder. (2017, November). (2021, August 2).
Health Direct. Avoidant Personality Disorder. (2019, February). (2021, August 2).
National Center for Biotechnology Information: U.S. National Library of Medicine: National Institutes of Health. Avoidant Personality Disorder: Current Insights. (2018, March 8). (2021, August 2).
Medline Plus: Trusted Health Information for You. Avoidant Personality Disorder. (2021, July 2). (2021, August 2).
National Center for Biotechnology Information. Avoidant Personality Disorder. (2021, June 9). (2021, August 3).
SJRP. St. John’s Recovery Place. Florida Drug and Alcohol Rehab Center. About Us. (Accessed 2021, August 3).
SJRP. St. John’s Recovery Place. Florida Drug and Alcohol Rehab Center. Contact Us. (Accessed 2021, August 3).