What is avoidant personality disorder and what does it involve?
Avoidant Personality Disorder is characterized by a persistent sense of inadequacy that makes most social situations intolerable.
This disorder is incapacitating to the extent that the sufferer precludes the possibility of having experiences , meeting new people, accepting jobs and even expressing their thoughts to others.
In fact, the fear that these are not socially accepted or recognized, determines silence or involves the risk of sacrificing one’s originality and creativity. In their place, a stereotypical mask could be found, sure of obtaining confirmation, but which says nothing about the singularity of the person.
What are the symptoms of avoidant personality disorder?
One of the main symptoms of avoidant personality disorder is the fear of being criticized, rejected, negatively judged and has repercussions on both the physical and psychic side . In the fear of being judged we can find the tendency to negative thoughts about oneself, low self-esteem , excessive brooding on what happened without the possibility of learning from the experience.
On the physical side, feelings of sadness , feelings of anxiety and anguish related to the events or thoughts of the events that are so feared are reported . With the risk that these thoughts and sensations also negatively affect the time you spend away from stressful situations.
People with avoidant personality disorder have great difficulty tolerating social contexts in which they fear that they will not feel accepted, be judged negatively or criticized. For this reason, avoid situations in which he does not feel comfortable.
Considerations and causes
Generally, those with this disorder are described as shy, very touchy, taciturn and isolated. The subject needs reassurance and does not tolerate the possibility of disliking. In these stretches it is very easy to find yourself, but, as for other ailments, you have to make the necessary comparisons.
It is normal to have anxiety related to a new and uncertain situation, in the same way it is normal to tend to avoid contexts in which there is fear of not being accepted or frowned upon. The extreme rigidity in rejecting any proposal and the impossibility of putting oneself to the test can be considered some of the real indicators of the presence of the disorder and not of a simple difficulty.
In the same way, however, I do not believe that we must necessarily associate this disorder with a submissive character, it can also manifest itself in less shy personalities.
The essential point is the rejection and avoidance of any situation or context in which it is not possible, a priori, to know that one will not be rejected.
Avoidance is a trait also present in other personality disorders because it is related to the fear of judgment and the fear that this is negative. In Lacan’s psychoanalytic meaning, what we are looking for is recognition by the other , for this reason we he understands how so much fear is motivated.
Possible solutions
Very often what escapes common awareness is how the judgment that is feared is not so much that of others, but rather one’s own that is attributed to others. Being able to realize this and start working on accepting yourself , as you are and not as you think you should be, allows you to give less weight to the judgment of others and, at the same time, to authorize yourself with less effort in satisfying your own desire.
A psychological path can always help to understand the causes of each specific case and make them more aware.
