Anxious Personality Disorder Mental Health

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Anxiety Personality Disorder

Anxious Personality Disorder is characterised by persistent and pervasive feelings of shyness, insecurity, apprehension and tension leading to restrictions in lifestyle that is also sometimes referred to as Avoidant Personality Disorder. The condition is also symptomatic of believing one self to be not liked, undeserving, socially inept or insecure and less important than other people leading to a reluctance to get involved in relationships unless certain of being liked or accepted.

Other traits of Anxious Personality Disorder include being overly concerned by the fear of being criticised or rejected in social or work situations leading to an avoidance of any activity that involves having to inter-relate with other people in such ways.

Anxious personality disorder is typically first noticed in early adulthood, and is often associated with rejection of a parent, friends or peers during childhood. Whether the rejection is due to the extreme interpersonal monitoring attributed to people with the disorder is not clearly known, however evidence suggests persons suffering from Anxious Personality Disorder typically do closely and overly scrutinise friendships and relationships.

The DSM-IV-TR, a widely used manual for diagnosing mental disorders (see also: DSM cautionary statement), defines anxious (avoidant) personality disorder as a "pervasive pattern of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, and hypersensitivity to negative evaluation, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by four (or more) of the following:

• avoids occupational activities that involve significant interpersonal contact, because of fears of criticism, disapproval, or rejection
• is unwilling to get involved with people unless certain of being liked
• shows restraint within intimate relationships because of the fear of being shamed or ridiculed
• is preoccupied with being criticized or rejected in social situations
• is inhibited in new interpersonal situations because of feelings of inadequacy views self as socially inept, personally unappealing, or inferior to others
• is unusually reluctant to take personal risks or to engage in any new activities because they may prove embarrassing

Research suggests that people with anxious personality disorder, in common with social phobics, excessively monitor their own internal reactions when they are involved in social interaction. However, unlike social phobics they also excessively monitor the reactions of the people with whom they are interacting. The tension that this situation creates may account for the hesitantancy in speech and taciturnity of many people with this disorder.

They are so preoccupied with monitoring themselves and others that producing fluent speech can be difficult difficult.

Various techniques are used in the treatment of anxious personality disorder including social skills training, cognitive therapy, exposure treatment to gradually increase social contacts, group therapy for practicing social skills, and in some cases drug therapy. A key issue in treatment is gaining and keeping the client's trust, since people with APD will often start to avoid treatment sessions if they distrust the therapist or fear rejection.

Generally self-treatment is frowned upon in the professional community, however, recent research indicates that starting, for example, a work-out program at the local gym can help bring about feelings of well-being (via increased endorphin production), increase positive self-attitude and promote positive socio-interaction with fellow gym members. Exercise Therapy is being used with a lot of success in aspects of APD therapy.

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See also:

• Anxiety and Anxiety Disorders
• Anti-social Personality Disorder