September 2, 2022 • 21 mins
If you feel judged all the time, have trouble maintaining relationships, and pass up opportunities because you fear others will notice your flaws, you could have Avoidant Personality Disorder. The good news, says Dr. Saltz, is that it can be treated.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Bees are challenging times, but you don't have to navigate
them alone. Welcome to how can I help? I'm Dr
Gale Salts. I'm a clinical Associate Professor of psychiatry at
the New York Presbyterian Hospital, a psychoanalyst, and best selling author,
and I'm here every week to answer your most pressing questions,
(00:26):
hopefully with understanding, insight and advice. Avoiding personality disorder is
one of a group of conditions known as personality disorders.
These disorders, in general, are enduring patterns of behavior throughout
various facets of one's life and also out of keeping
(00:50):
with cultural norms, but that cause suffering for the affected
individual or those around them. Of personality disorder is grouped
with other personality disorders that have in common feelings of
nervousness and fear. People with avoiding personality disorder have chronict
(01:11):
feelings of inadequacy and are highly sensitive to and fear
being negatively judged by others. Though they would like to
interact with other people, they tend to avoid social interactions
due to the intense fear of being rejected by others.
(01:32):
So today I'm answering a question from a woman who
is struggling with the fallout from always being afraid others
will reject her. It is estimated that about two point
four percent of the US population has avoiding personality disorder.
It appears to affect men and women equally. Like other
(01:54):
personality disorders, avoiding personality disorder symptoms may be noticed in
childhood and often begin to create discomfort in adolescence or
early adulthood. It is usually not diagnosed in people younger
than eighteen years of age, like many other personality disorders,
as there should be evidence that the pattern of behavior
(02:16):
is enduring and inflexible and does not fade with time.
The exact cause of this personality disorder is not known, However,
it is believed that both genetics and environment play a role.
It's thought that avoiding personality disorder may be passed down
(02:40):
in families through genes, but this has not yet been proven. However,
it is notable that it does tend to run in families,
and environmental factors, particularly in childhood, do play an important role.
So for example, harsh and critical treatment that is highly
(03:00):
critical at home or later bullying by friends or schoolmates
can impact the development of this personality disorder. Shyness, which
is often normal in young children but then lasten to
it adolescence. An adulthood is common in those with avoidant
(03:20):
personality disorder. Those with the disorder often report past experiences
of parental or pure rejection, which can impact that person's
self esteem and their self worth. For people with this disorder,
the fear of rejection is so strong that they choose
(03:43):
isolation rather than risk being rejected in a relationship, so
the pattern of behavior in people with this disorder can
vary from mild to extreme. In addition to their fear
of humiliation and rejection, other common traits of people with
the disorder include being over sensitive and easily hurt by
(04:06):
criticism or disapproval. They likely have few, if any, close friends,
and are reluctant to become involved with others until they
are certain of being liked by them. They experience extreme
anxiety and fear in social settings and in relationships, leading
them to avoid activities or jobs that involve being with
(04:30):
other people. They tend to be shy and awkward and
self conscious in social situations due to a fear of
doing something wrong or being embarrassed. They tend to exaggerate
potential problems and seldom try anything new or take chances,
and they have a poor self image, seeing themselves as
(04:52):
inadequate and inferior. If you're living with avoidant personality to disorder,
other people might think of you as shy, reserve, or private,
but this condition goes beyond being shy, although early signs
often include that shy people might have trouble connecting with
(05:16):
new people at first, but they gradually feel more comfortable
as time goes on. With avoiding personality disorder, you might
feel so concerned that others will notice what you consider
your flaws or inadequacies that you're not able to feel
safe or relaxed in their company, and so over time
(05:37):
it doesn't get better. Social anxiety and avoiding personality disorder
actually do share many similarities, and so it may seem
difficult to tell the difference, and some people think of
avoiding personality disorder as an extreme form of social anxiety,
but they are really considered separate conditions because avoiding personality
(06:01):
disorder is notable because it's not limited to just social interactions.
The fear of being judged harshly can also affect someone's
productivity and their life success at work for example, think
of the saying if I don't try, then I won't fail.
(06:23):
Taken to an extreme, the avoiding personality is so afraid
of failure that they may not engage and try in
many arenas of their life. So one key difference between
these two disorders is that people living with anxiety often
recognize their responses as anxiety. So if you have social anxiety,
(06:46):
you might have a lot of fear going to a party.
You may know the things, however, that you worry about,
like oh what if I say the wrong thing? What
if I spill a drink on myself are pretty unlikely,
but you still can't help worrying about them. With avoiding personality,
you lack that awareness. You feel convinced you'll say or
(07:09):
do something to get that negative judgment from others. So
with that, right after the break, we'll get to my
listeners question. Welcome back. Let's get to my listeners question
(07:33):
and see how can I help dear Dr Souls. I
am approaching thirty years of age and I have really
struggled all my life with being very shy, introvert, and
afraid of other people rejecting me. As a result, I
have a lot of difficulty making and keeping friends, let
(07:56):
alone a boyfriend. I find going out exhaust sting because
I'm worrying all the time about being seen critically, and
so I'm watching myself all the time and seeing myself
in a bad light and worrying that the other person
is too. This makes it really hard to relax or
(08:16):
have fun or reach out to see that person again.
And as a result, I feel lonely a lot. I
know something is wrong. Is this something a psychologist or
a psychiatrist could help me with. Being introverted means that
you expend energy in socializing with others and you recharge
(08:39):
your battery with a lone time, but you still do
enjoy spending time with others. But being shy means you
have a nervousness about being with others. But for the
most part, people who are shy are able to overcome
their shyness once they do spend some time with someone,
and the shy feeling decreases, allowing them to enjoy being
(09:03):
with the other person. Of course, being shy could initially
make interacting more difficult and lead to feelings that it
was hard and stressful to connect, But after that hump,
shy people are able to connect. If you're nerves and
fear of rejection and belief that you'll be criticized are
(09:24):
persisting such that you ultimately are not able to stay
connected to other people so that you can't make friendships,
then that sounds more like either social anxiety or avoidant
personality disorder. If you know your worries about rejection or
criticism are overblown and irrational though they persist, then this
(09:47):
could be severe social anxiety, especially if they are accompanied
by physical anxiety symptoms like feeling jittery, flushing, sweating, getting nervous,
and shorter breath. If, however, these worries stay genuinely very
real to you before, during, and after, and they are
(10:11):
also affecting all arenas of life like work too, where
you so fear social rejection you are avoiding a job
that requires social interacting, then this may be avoiding personality disorder.
Why does this even matter because social anxiety disorder tends
(10:33):
to respond well to what's called cognitive behavioral therapy, as
do most anxiety disorders, whereas avoiding personality is better treated
with a psychodynamic psychotherapy to look at earlier trauma and
how it shaped your fears and time spent deeply connecting
to a therapist who can understand all this with you
(10:58):
in a nutshell though, Yeah, treatment can definitely help you,
and you should go to treatment with a psychologist as
soon as possible to start working on this, because of course,
you are entitled to a much more fulfilling and happy
life and therapy can help you get there. If this
sounds more like social anxiety disorder, then I would recommend
(11:22):
finding a therapist who specializes in cognitive behavioral therapy for
anxiety disorders, and if a psychiatrist is needed who can
add medication, then that is something that can be discussed
as well, at least for the short term. If this
is more of a pervasive all aspects of life and
(11:43):
work and failing to engage in anything as a result,
then I would recommend that you search for a psychoanalyst
or a psychodynamically trained psychotherapist who can help you uncover
what in earlier life has caused you to develop this
maladaptive method of feeling and behaving and then work on
(12:04):
reshaping it together. I hope that was helpful. Generally, personality
disorders developed as an adaptive response to challenging or traumatic situations.
In other words, these specific traits and behaviors that are
(12:25):
part of personality disorders serve as the mind's defense mechanisms.
They help you cope with stress in the moment and
protect you from emotional pain initially, but over time they
become symptoms that get in your way and cause suffering.
Your early attachment or abandonment experiences with your first caregivers
(12:50):
may have a lot to do with the development of
avoiding personality disorder. For example, if your parent neglected or
ignored you, or offered a lot of harsh criticism, or
mocked or demeaned or devalued you. Bonds with childhood caregivers
typically lay the foundation for the relationships you do develop
later in life. If you absorb their criticism, you might
(13:14):
grow up with a negative self image and have trouble
trusting others. This fearful or avoiding attachment style can make
it difficult to form relationships. Despite your desire for intimacy,
you might not be able to shake the underlying conviction
that you'll eventually face the same rejection and disdain you
(13:35):
got at home. Mental health professionals can diagnose avoiding personality disorders.
Experts don't often diagnose the condition in teens and in childhood.
A pattern of shyness or reticence often does begin in
childhood or adolescents, but this can happen as a typical
(13:56):
part of development and that is not a diagnosed personality disorder,
and many of those people do not go on to
develop avoiding personality disorder. So before diagnosing avoiding personality, the
mental health professional will ask you questions about the signs
and symptoms you've noticed, like how long have you experienced
(14:17):
them in what setting do these same feelings come up
at school, at work, at home, and how much do
they affect your life? Because to qualify for personality disorder,
you have to really interrupt your functioning. They will listen
to how you respond, and sometimes people will even show
(14:39):
that avoidance style or that fearful style of being judged
right in the therapy session. Traits of personality disorders persist
over time, and they do appear in most areas of life.
So if you, for example, tell the therapist that you
feel extremely hesitant to open up at work, that your
(15:02):
coworkers all seem more experienced and professional and you're pretty
sure they're going to laugh at whatever, you have to
say that close friends and loved ones make you also
fear what you will say that you worry they'll laugh
at you too, And your therapists will probably take the
information that you give and how you interact in your
(15:24):
session to try to figure out if what's going on
is in fact avoiding personality. So if you describe, for example,
that you've turned down an interview for your dream job
because you worry that you won't be able to make
a good impression. Or if you're a student, if you
don't share in class even though participation is a big
part of your grade, because you're afraid of being judged.
(15:49):
If you turn down invitations from new people because you're
sure they don't really want to get to know you,
even though they invited you. If it works your team
is discussing something very important and your supervisor tells everyone
that they need to share, but you don't share, even
though you're risking your job, all of these things may
(16:11):
indicate to your therapists that in fact, what you're struggling
with has more to do with avoidant personality. Another issue
is that social support is really important to mental health
when it comes to just everyday life stress. If you
don't have that support, you might end up struggling to
manage any difficulties that come up and may end up
(16:33):
feeling really overwhelmed and as you brought up. Loneliness is
a big factor when it comes to both mental and
physical health. It can affect sleep issues, diabetes, cancer, heart disease,
high blood pressure, depression, and substance use and abuse, and
(16:55):
in fact, avoidant personality disorder often occurs with depression and
substance use. There's a misperception that substance use might help
your symptoms feel more bearable, but really that's temporary, and
research tells us that symptoms will return once you're sober again.
(17:15):
In fact, substances are known to intensify feelings of depression,
and both mental illness and substance use feed each other's
perpetuating condition. Sharing your concerns with a therapist might seem
both terrifying and impossible if you have avoidant personality, Even
when you think therapy could help relieve some of your symptoms,
(17:40):
the fear of criticism and judgment might outweigh your desire
for support. But consider that mental health professionals specialize in
compassionate care that meets you where you are, they understand
you to choose to have a personality disorder. A therapist
will offer empathy and kindness as they validate your experience
(18:01):
and help you identify and address symptoms and explore helpful
coping methods. Though no medication is specific to avoidant personality
disorder itself, treatment generally involves talk therapy known as psychotherapy.
Treatment doesn't mean changing your disposition or your personality. Rather,
(18:24):
overcoming and addressing your fears of rejection could help you
establish stronger connections with yourself as well as other people.
Therapy can help you establish a complete sense of self.
When it comes to therapy for this condition, it's generally
most helpful to connect the therapist who specializes in treating
(18:44):
personality disorders, particularly since avoiding personality disorder symptoms can resemble
social anxiety symptoms. Your therapists might recommend group therapy to
help you practice interacting in a safe space, but basically
therapy will help you identify and navigate fears of rejection
(19:04):
and criticism, reframe unhelpful beliefs, practice social skills, learn coping
strategies to manage your distress, and explore potential factors that
contribute to avoiding personality disorder, addressing along the way any
other mental health symptoms, including anxiety, stress, or depression. Although
(19:29):
medication can't treat avoiding personality disorder specifically, antidepressants and anti
anxiety medication could help relieve some other symptoms that you're
experiencing as a result of this disorder. Overwhelming feelings of
anxiety and depression aren't always manageable alone. They can make
day to day life more difficult and complicate the therapy process.
(19:55):
Sometimes medication offers enough space from distressing thoughts and feelings
that daily life does become more manageable, and it helps
you to work more effectively in therapy and make more progress.
Medication can help ease your distress, even if it's not
treating the underlying cause. Mental health professionals typically recommend a
(20:19):
combination of medication and therapy rather than medication alone, and
it's important to understand that therapy won't change your personality completely,
so you might still hesitate before interacting with new people
or situations. It just won't be overwhelming and limiting, so overall,
(20:40):
therapy offers a safe, non judgmental space to address and
challenge distressing thoughts, which can make it easier to overcome
yourself doubt and build fulfilling relationships. Do you have a
problem I can help with? If so, email me yet.
(21:00):
How can I help? At Seneca women dot com. All
centers remain anonymous and listen every Friday too. How can
I help with me? Doctor Gale's Salts
Bees are challenging times, but you don't have to navigate
them alone. Welcome to how can I help? I'm Dr
Gale Salts. I'm a clinical Associate Professor of psychiatry at
the New York Presbyterian Hospital, a psychoanalyst, and best selling author,
and I'm here every week to answer your most pressing questions,
(00:26):
hopefully with understanding, insight and advice. Avoiding personality disorder is
one of a group of conditions known as personality disorders.
These disorders, in general, are enduring patterns of behavior throughout
various facets of one's life and also out of keeping
(00:50):
with cultural norms, but that cause suffering for the affected
individual or those around them. Of personality disorder is grouped
with other personality disorders that have in common feelings of
nervousness and fear. People with avoiding personality disorder have chronict
(01:11):
feelings of inadequacy and are highly sensitive to and fear
being negatively judged by others. Though they would like to
interact with other people, they tend to avoid social interactions
due to the intense fear of being rejected by others.
(01:32):
So today I'm answering a question from a woman who
is struggling with the fallout from always being afraid others
will reject her. It is estimated that about two point
four percent of the US population has avoiding personality disorder.
It appears to affect men and women equally. Like other
(01:54):
personality disorders, avoiding personality disorder symptoms may be noticed in
childhood and often begin to create discomfort in adolescence or
early adulthood. It is usually not diagnosed in people younger
than eighteen years of age, like many other personality disorders,
as there should be evidence that the pattern of behavior
(02:16):
is enduring and inflexible and does not fade with time.
The exact cause of this personality disorder is not known, However,
it is believed that both genetics and environment play a role.
It's thought that avoiding personality disorder may be passed down
(02:40):
in families through genes, but this has not yet been proven. However,
it is notable that it does tend to run in families,
and environmental factors, particularly in childhood, do play an important role.
So for example, harsh and critical treatment that is highly
(03:00):
critical at home or later bullying by friends or schoolmates
can impact the development of this personality disorder. Shyness, which
is often normal in young children but then lasten to
it adolescence. An adulthood is common in those with avoidant
(03:20):
personality disorder. Those with the disorder often report past experiences
of parental or pure rejection, which can impact that person's
self esteem and their self worth. For people with this disorder,
the fear of rejection is so strong that they choose
(03:43):
isolation rather than risk being rejected in a relationship, so
the pattern of behavior in people with this disorder can
vary from mild to extreme. In addition to their fear
of humiliation and rejection, other common traits of people with
the disorder include being over sensitive and easily hurt by
(04:06):
criticism or disapproval. They likely have few, if any, close friends,
and are reluctant to become involved with others until they
are certain of being liked by them. They experience extreme
anxiety and fear in social settings and in relationships, leading
them to avoid activities or jobs that involve being with
(04:30):
other people. They tend to be shy and awkward and
self conscious in social situations due to a fear of
doing something wrong or being embarrassed. They tend to exaggerate
potential problems and seldom try anything new or take chances,
and they have a poor self image, seeing themselves as
(04:52):
inadequate and inferior. If you're living with avoidant personality to disorder,
other people might think of you as shy, reserve, or private,
but this condition goes beyond being shy, although early signs
often include that shy people might have trouble connecting with
(05:16):
new people at first, but they gradually feel more comfortable
as time goes on. With avoiding personality disorder, you might
feel so concerned that others will notice what you consider
your flaws or inadequacies that you're not able to feel
safe or relaxed in their company, and so over time
(05:37):
it doesn't get better. Social anxiety and avoiding personality disorder
actually do share many similarities, and so it may seem
difficult to tell the difference, and some people think of
avoiding personality disorder as an extreme form of social anxiety,
but they are really considered separate conditions because avoiding personality
(06:01):
disorder is notable because it's not limited to just social interactions.
The fear of being judged harshly can also affect someone's
productivity and their life success at work for example, think
of the saying if I don't try, then I won't fail.
(06:23):
Taken to an extreme, the avoiding personality is so afraid
of failure that they may not engage and try in
many arenas of their life. So one key difference between
these two disorders is that people living with anxiety often
recognize their responses as anxiety. So if you have social anxiety,
(06:46):
you might have a lot of fear going to a party.
You may know the things, however, that you worry about,
like oh what if I say the wrong thing? What
if I spill a drink on myself are pretty unlikely,
but you still can't help worrying about them. With avoiding personality,
you lack that awareness. You feel convinced you'll say or
(07:09):
do something to get that negative judgment from others. So
with that, right after the break, we'll get to my
listeners question. Welcome back. Let's get to my listeners question
(07:33):
and see how can I help dear Dr Souls. I
am approaching thirty years of age and I have really
struggled all my life with being very shy, introvert, and
afraid of other people rejecting me. As a result, I
have a lot of difficulty making and keeping friends, let
(07:56):
alone a boyfriend. I find going out exhaust sting because
I'm worrying all the time about being seen critically, and
so I'm watching myself all the time and seeing myself
in a bad light and worrying that the other person
is too. This makes it really hard to relax or
(08:16):
have fun or reach out to see that person again.
And as a result, I feel lonely a lot. I
know something is wrong. Is this something a psychologist or
a psychiatrist could help me with. Being introverted means that
you expend energy in socializing with others and you recharge
(08:39):
your battery with a lone time, but you still do
enjoy spending time with others. But being shy means you
have a nervousness about being with others. But for the
most part, people who are shy are able to overcome
their shyness once they do spend some time with someone,
and the shy feeling decreases, allowing them to enjoy being
(09:03):
with the other person. Of course, being shy could initially
make interacting more difficult and lead to feelings that it
was hard and stressful to connect, But after that hump,
shy people are able to connect. If you're nerves and
fear of rejection and belief that you'll be criticized are
(09:24):
persisting such that you ultimately are not able to stay
connected to other people so that you can't make friendships,
then that sounds more like either social anxiety or avoidant
personality disorder. If you know your worries about rejection or
criticism are overblown and irrational though they persist, then this
(09:47):
could be severe social anxiety, especially if they are accompanied
by physical anxiety symptoms like feeling jittery, flushing, sweating, getting nervous,
and shorter breath. If, however, these worries stay genuinely very
real to you before, during, and after, and they are
(10:11):
also affecting all arenas of life like work too, where
you so fear social rejection you are avoiding a job
that requires social interacting, then this may be avoiding personality disorder.
Why does this even matter because social anxiety disorder tends
(10:33):
to respond well to what's called cognitive behavioral therapy, as
do most anxiety disorders, whereas avoiding personality is better treated
with a psychodynamic psychotherapy to look at earlier trauma and
how it shaped your fears and time spent deeply connecting
to a therapist who can understand all this with you
(10:58):
in a nutshell though, Yeah, treatment can definitely help you,
and you should go to treatment with a psychologist as
soon as possible to start working on this, because of course,
you are entitled to a much more fulfilling and happy
life and therapy can help you get there. If this
sounds more like social anxiety disorder, then I would recommend
(11:22):
finding a therapist who specializes in cognitive behavioral therapy for
anxiety disorders, and if a psychiatrist is needed who can
add medication, then that is something that can be discussed
as well, at least for the short term. If this
is more of a pervasive all aspects of life and
(11:43):
work and failing to engage in anything as a result,
then I would recommend that you search for a psychoanalyst
or a psychodynamically trained psychotherapist who can help you uncover
what in earlier life has caused you to develop this
maladaptive method of feeling and behaving and then work on
(12:04):
reshaping it together. I hope that was helpful. Generally, personality
disorders developed as an adaptive response to challenging or traumatic situations.
In other words, these specific traits and behaviors that are
(12:25):
part of personality disorders serve as the mind's defense mechanisms.
They help you cope with stress in the moment and
protect you from emotional pain initially, but over time they
become symptoms that get in your way and cause suffering.
Your early attachment or abandonment experiences with your first caregivers
(12:50):
may have a lot to do with the development of
avoiding personality disorder. For example, if your parent neglected or
ignored you, or offered a lot of harsh criticism, or
mocked or demeaned or devalued you. Bonds with childhood caregivers
typically lay the foundation for the relationships you do develop
later in life. If you absorb their criticism, you might
(13:14):
grow up with a negative self image and have trouble
trusting others. This fearful or avoiding attachment style can make
it difficult to form relationships. Despite your desire for intimacy,
you might not be able to shake the underlying conviction
that you'll eventually face the same rejection and disdain you
(13:35):
got at home. Mental health professionals can diagnose avoiding personality disorders.
Experts don't often diagnose the condition in teens and in childhood.
A pattern of shyness or reticence often does begin in
childhood or adolescents, but this can happen as a typical
(13:56):
part of development and that is not a diagnosed personality disorder,
and many of those people do not go on to
develop avoiding personality disorder. So before diagnosing avoiding personality, the
mental health professional will ask you questions about the signs
and symptoms you've noticed, like how long have you experienced
(14:17):
them in what setting do these same feelings come up
at school, at work, at home, and how much do
they affect your life? Because to qualify for personality disorder,
you have to really interrupt your functioning. They will listen
to how you respond, and sometimes people will even show
(14:39):
that avoidance style or that fearful style of being judged
right in the therapy session. Traits of personality disorders persist
over time, and they do appear in most areas of life.
So if you, for example, tell the therapist that you
feel extremely hesitant to open up at work, that your
(15:02):
coworkers all seem more experienced and professional and you're pretty
sure they're going to laugh at whatever, you have to
say that close friends and loved ones make you also
fear what you will say that you worry they'll laugh
at you too, And your therapists will probably take the
information that you give and how you interact in your
(15:24):
session to try to figure out if what's going on
is in fact avoiding personality. So if you describe, for example,
that you've turned down an interview for your dream job
because you worry that you won't be able to make
a good impression. Or if you're a student, if you
don't share in class even though participation is a big
part of your grade, because you're afraid of being judged.
(15:49):
If you turn down invitations from new people because you're
sure they don't really want to get to know you,
even though they invited you. If it works your team
is discussing something very important and your supervisor tells everyone
that they need to share, but you don't share, even
though you're risking your job, all of these things may
(16:11):
indicate to your therapists that in fact, what you're struggling
with has more to do with avoidant personality. Another issue
is that social support is really important to mental health
when it comes to just everyday life stress. If you
don't have that support, you might end up struggling to
manage any difficulties that come up and may end up
(16:33):
feeling really overwhelmed and as you brought up. Loneliness is
a big factor when it comes to both mental and
physical health. It can affect sleep issues, diabetes, cancer, heart disease,
high blood pressure, depression, and substance use and abuse, and
(16:55):
in fact, avoidant personality disorder often occurs with depression and
substance use. There's a misperception that substance use might help
your symptoms feel more bearable, but really that's temporary, and
research tells us that symptoms will return once you're sober again.
(17:15):
In fact, substances are known to intensify feelings of depression,
and both mental illness and substance use feed each other's
perpetuating condition. Sharing your concerns with a therapist might seem
both terrifying and impossible if you have avoidant personality, Even
when you think therapy could help relieve some of your symptoms,
(17:40):
the fear of criticism and judgment might outweigh your desire
for support. But consider that mental health professionals specialize in
compassionate care that meets you where you are, they understand
you to choose to have a personality disorder. A therapist
will offer empathy and kindness as they validate your experience
(18:01):
and help you identify and address symptoms and explore helpful
coping methods. Though no medication is specific to avoidant personality
disorder itself, treatment generally involves talk therapy known as psychotherapy.
Treatment doesn't mean changing your disposition or your personality. Rather,
(18:24):
overcoming and addressing your fears of rejection could help you
establish stronger connections with yourself as well as other people.
Therapy can help you establish a complete sense of self.
When it comes to therapy for this condition, it's generally
most helpful to connect the therapist who specializes in treating
(18:44):
personality disorders, particularly since avoiding personality disorder symptoms can resemble
social anxiety symptoms. Your therapists might recommend group therapy to
help you practice interacting in a safe space, but basically
therapy will help you identify and navigate fears of rejection
(19:04):
and criticism, reframe unhelpful beliefs, practice social skills, learn coping
strategies to manage your distress, and explore potential factors that
contribute to avoiding personality disorder, addressing along the way any
other mental health symptoms, including anxiety, stress, or depression. Although
(19:29):
medication can't treat avoiding personality disorder specifically, antidepressants and anti
anxiety medication could help relieve some other symptoms that you're
experiencing as a result of this disorder. Overwhelming feelings of
anxiety and depression aren't always manageable alone. They can make
day to day life more difficult and complicate the therapy process.
(19:55):
Sometimes medication offers enough space from distressing thoughts and feelings
that daily life does become more manageable, and it helps
you to work more effectively in therapy and make more progress.
Medication can help ease your distress, even if it's not
treating the underlying cause. Mental health professionals typically recommend a
(20:19):
combination of medication and therapy rather than medication alone, and
it's important to understand that therapy won't change your personality completely,
so you might still hesitate before interacting with new people
or situations. It just won't be overwhelming and limiting, so overall,
(20:40):
therapy offers a safe, non judgmental space to address and
challenge distressing thoughts, which can make it easier to overcome
yourself doubt and build fulfilling relationships. Do you have a
problem I can help with? If so, email me yet.
(21:00):
How can I help? At Seneca women dot com. All
centers remain anonymous and listen every Friday too. How can
I help with me? Doctor Gale's Salts
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