Avoidant personality disorder (AvPD) is a fearful personality disorder, which it is one of the official 10 personality disorders. AvPD is far more common in women than it is in men. A patient with AvPD suffers from severe low self-esteem issues by considering herself or himself to be a burden and hideous to others, which is why an avoidant patient refuses to socialize with other people for fear of being embarrassed, criticized, or bullied. On extreme occasions, an avoidant patient has to be certain that she or he has to befriend someone who is harmless, and will make her or him feel completely safe without being judged for being different from someone.
A patient with AvPD tends to be overly emotional or very sensitive about what people think of her or him. An avoidant patient also believes in the best of everyone having some good in them or they even believe that treating some abusers as people will make them become civilized human beings. However, most dramatic people never want to change to suppress their malicious behavior to treat others with empathy and to respect others' boundaries, and if they do change, they will revert to their old self to continue on abusing others.
Relationship between AvPD and SzPD[]
An avoidant patient is usually confused with a patient with schizoid personality disorder (SzPD), which is a cluster A personality disorder. This is because both patients most likely lack close friendships, they are both very silent or socially awkward, they both dislike being the center of attention, they both dislike mainstream culture, and they are both social outcasts of society. However, an avoidant patient seeks to have meaningful friendships or lovers if she or he has enough confidence and much less shame to earn her or his acceptance of others, contrasting to a schizoid patient who thinks that there is nothing wrong with not having any close relationships with others and he or she rather be completely alone to be happy from being told what society expects him or her to follow the same trend as everyone else.
Comorbidity[]
The following conditions commonly coexist with AvPD:
- Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD)
- Dependent personality disorder (DPD)
- Social anxiety disorder, agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and other anxiety disorders
- Eating disorders
- Substance use disorder