Avoidant Personality Disorder

Symptoms and Treatments

What is Avoidant Personality Disorder?

Avoidant personality disorder is characterized by a chronic and pervasive pattern of distorted thought, emotion, behavior, and functioning. This type of personality disorder is thought to affect approximately one-percent of adults in the United States. Individuals with this disorder are also more prone to anxiety disorders, including agoraphobia and social phobia.

Symptoms of Avoidant Personality Disorder

Individuals with avoidant personality disorder typically experience:

  • Extreme shyness
  • Sensitivity to criticism and rejection
  • Low self-esteem and feelings of inadequacy
  • A desire for closeness with others but difficulty forming relationships with people outside of immediate family.
  • Avoidance of social situations, including those related to school or work.
  • Treatments for Avoidant Personality Disorder

    Avoidant personality disorder is most often treated using psychotherapy. Because individuals with avoidant personality disorder are extremely shy and have difficulty with interpersonal communication, group therapy is generally not recommended. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is often very effective in helping individuals overcome shyness and develop new skills and behaviors.

    Anti-anxiety medications and antidepressant drugs are often used to help individuals succeed in psychotherapy. While these drugs can help those with avoidant personality disorder succeed in therapy, medication alone is not a recommended treatment for avoidant personality disorder.

    Understand all about Anxiety Disorder. Read more…

    1. All about Anxiety
    2. Symptoms of Anxiety
    3. Causes of Anxiety
    4. Treatment for Anxiety
    5. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
    6. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
    7. Panic Disorder
    8. Age of Anxiety
    9. Dependent Personality Disorder
    10. Avoidant Personality Disorder
    11. Online Psychotherapy
    Find out about Online Psychotherapy. Rabbi Dr. Kesselman began his career in psychotherapy as the result of his own severe depressive disorder occasioned by alcoholism as a coping mechanism. He is partly self-taught, his degrees having been awarded through the original contributions he has made to this field. He is the developer of ?The Structured Brief Time-Limited Psychotherapy?, better known as the Five Gates Program of Recovery.