Avoidant Personality Disorder Analysis

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Our group presentation covered personality disorders. The project was divided into the three clusters of personality disorders: A, B, and C. My portion of the project covered Cluster C personality disorders. This is an in-depth analysis of Cluster C and general information about personality disorders and treatment options. Introduction Why are some people happy and easy to be around? What makes others more reserved and quiet? These, and many more, characteristics make up a person 's personality. Personality refers to a distinctive set of traits, behavior styles, and patterns that make up character or individuality. An individual 's personality and behaviors are as unique as their fingerprints. This diversity provides ample opportunities
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Avoidant personality disorder is characterized by a pervasive pattern of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, and a hypersensitivity to negative criticism. Individuals often avoid interpersonal relationships and are fearful of rejection. Furthermore, they tend to avoid social situations unless they know in advance that they will be liked or well received. They often have a high fear of embarrassment or ridicule, leading them to be extremely shy and timid. Unfortunately, due to these thoughts they tend to interpret the world as revolving around them, but not in a positive way. The world revolves around their thoughts of not being good enough and that others don 't like them, whether in reality or just perception. These thoughts lead them to low self esteem and create intense anxiety in social situations. Avoidant personality disorder individuals often consider themselves unappealing. These thoughts and behavior patterns tend to negatively affect individual 's lives. This disorder makes it very difficult to create close relationships. Their feelings of inadequacy and fear of embarrassment often prevent them from speaking up in meetings or class, which could hinder job promotions or advancement. Due to their withdrawn nature, others tend to view those with avoidant personality disorder as stiff and …show more content…
A patient must meet at least 3 of the symptom criteria, ranging from encouraging or allowing others to make life 's most important decisions to feeling uncomfortable or helpless when alone because of exaggerated fears of inability to care for one 's self (World Health Organization, 1993. p. 156) While dependent personalities are quite common, most people know someone who fits at least a few of the criteria, to receive a diagnosis of dependent personality disorder an individual must exhibit symptoms for an extended amount of time. Therefore, diagnosing dependent personality disorder is actually quite rare, occurring in about 0.6% of the general population ("Personality", 2007). Interestingly, dependent personality disorder is strongly influenced by genetics. Based on twin studies of the disorder, there is a high occurrence of both twins having dependent personality disorder, despite environmental differences ("Heritability", 2012). This disorder does occur more often in women than in

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