Avoidant personality disorder
-
Avoidant personality disorder is characterized by avoiding social situations or interactions that involve risk of rejection, criticism, or humiliation.
People with avoidant personality disorder are afraid of being rejected, criticized, or embarrassed and thus avoid situations where they may experience such reactions.
Doctors diagnose avoidant personality disorder based on specific symptoms, such as avoiding situations that involve interpersonal contact because of fear of rejection and disapproval or feelings of being socially incompetent, unappealing, or inferior to others.
People with this disorder may benefit from cognitive-behavioral therapy, other psychotherapies, and antianxiety drugs and antidepressants.Personality disorders are long-lasting, pervasive patterns of thinking, perceiving, reacting, and relating that cause the person significant distress and/or impair the person
Explore More Definitions
Browse our collection of 300,000+ community-written definitions