Ruy Miranda
Social Anxiety Shyness Info

Avoidant Personality Disorder: A Defense Against the Social Anxiety Attacks

In Avoidant Personality Disorder, the person maintains a systematic avoidance of social contacts and any situation which might result in embarrassment or anxiety. Even with people who are close, he or she avoids a more intimate involvement.

The permanent expectations of being ridiculed, criticized, rejected puts the person constantly at the borderline of suffering anxiety attacks. Then he develops a permanent scheme of self-protection against anxiety.

Some signs and symptoms are found in these people. Sometimes the symptoms predominate and the disorder goes unnoticed by the majority of people with whom the bearer has contact (because symptoms are subjectives).

– They tend to live alone
– Contact with family and friends can be enjoyable, but only for a short period of time (minute or hours) and anxiety can be aroused at any moment.
– They avoid contact with strangers. They are extremely kind when such contact occurs and they do everything possible to make sure that such contact is brief.
– They develop at least one phobia (for animals or objects) whose origin is connected with the earlier appearance of anxiety attacks in social situations. The animal or object connected with such situations unleashes the anxiety and this assumes phobic characteristics.
– They are aware that they have abdicated certain experiences in life in order to avoid suffering.
– They often fantasize about the situations they avoid and yet would like to experience – in their fantasies they exclude the anxiety-provoking stimuli.
– They can be professionally successful, but they could be even more successful if they did not turn their backs on opportunities.

What is the difference between Avoidant Personality Disorder, Shyness, Social Anxiety, Generalized Social Phobia and Introverted Personality?

Shyness – As I see it, the difference is that in Shyness the person still tries to face situations which generate fear, even if only to show others what she is capable of getting. The situation may be uncomfortable yet the person tries to convey the message to those around him that he is liking or enjoying it. The desire to integrate oneself is so intense that the anxiety takes a back seat. Above all, the person has to show that she can get the same things other people can and enjoy them as much as they do.

Social Anxiety – In Social Anxiety, the person avoids social contacts and performance, mainly those that unleash extreme anxiety like panic attacks, but he wants to have such contacts and preserves the potentialities of affective involvement and feels comfortable with people who are close.

Generalized Social Phobia – In Generalized Social Phobia, a.k.a. Generalized Social Anxiety, the person suffers anxiety attacks due to exposure to many social situations. There is avoidance, to protect oneself, but the person wants to live like the others and have the same opportunities.

Avoidant Personality Disorder – In Avoidant Personality Disorder, besides the behaviors and attitudes described, we can see that the person has given up altogether on facing situations that generate fear and does not undergo anxiety attacks simply because she avoids any anxiety-generating situation that is possible. Additionally, she does everything possible not to be noticed.

Introverted Personality - Avoidance Personality Disorder has external similarities to the Introverted Personality. Nevertheless, within people there are differences. The main one is that the person with introverted personality does not feel anxiety when it is necessary to maintain social contact.

In my clinical observation, Avoidant Personality Disorder is preceded by anxiety attacks and even some panic attacks, which become occasional atacks or even stop due to the avoidance mechanisms that are developed.

Treatment

The indicated treatment is psychotherapy. However, difficulties often arise, such as:

* lack of motivation to change, so that the person will usually not seek help;
* involvement is very slow in coming, because the self-protection mechanisms are well structured;
* resistance to proposals to practice acts that may speed up the process;
* the person easily gives up the treatment.


Among those cases, which may go around in psychotherapeutic circles for years and years or go from one therapist to another without any progress, are those of avoidance personality disorder.

October, 2004.

E-mail this page

Please read the Disclaimer-Purpose before e-mail or print this page.