Question 1

How Do You Get Diagnosed With Avoidant Personality Disorder?

Accepted Answer

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, (DSM-5), to be diagnosed with avoidant personality disorder (AVPD), four or more of the following criteria must be present:

Avoidance of workplace activities that require significant interpersonal interaction because of fear of criticism or rejection.
Is resistant to get involved with people unless assured of being liked.
Avoidance of close, romantic, or sexually intimate relationships because of the fear of being humiliated or belittled.
Is hypersensitive to criticism or rejection in social situations.
Is inhibited in new interpersonal situations because of feelings of inadequacy.
Sees self as socially awkward, personally unappealing, or overall inferior to others.
Avoidance of trying any new activities because they could prove embarrassing.

Published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the DSM-5 is the guide used by mental health professionals to diagnose mental health conditions.

Wondering what avoidants are like in relationships? Here's how avoidants behave and strategies to cope better.

Ultimately, avoidants are as capable of experiencing healthy and fulfilling relationships as anyone else. Most importantly, they need to understand the challenges they face and the tools they need to handle them.

How to get help

Seeking professional help is often beneficial to learn coping mechanisms and develop or strengthen relationships of all kinds.

In a therapeutic relationship, an avoidant can “practice” a social relationship with their therapists and ask candidly about how they are being perceived.

If you’re having a challenging time with relationship issues, consider talking with a licensed therapist who specializes in avoidant personality disorder and/or therapists with expertise in attachment-based issues.

Find out your attachment style

Take our 3-Minute Attachment Style Quiz to find out your personal attachment style, and you'll get a free customized report.

Knowing your attachment style is helpful to developing a better understanding of your interactions and behavior in relationships. Results are completely confidential.

Question 2

Do Avoidants Lack Empathy?

Accepted Answer

Avoidants don't necessarily lack empathy, though their behavior sometimes makes it seem like they do.

During childhood, people with avoidant personality disorder (AVPD) and/or avoidant attachment style may have experienced neglect or abuse, which results in a fear of letting themselves be vulnerable, as vulnerability often resulted in negative repercussions.

Because of this, the may have trouble understanding others' emotions and can communicate poorly about their own feelings.

This, however, does not mean that they can't feel for others.

For some people, empathy is simply a skill that needs to be developed through hard work, and it's likely that avoidants want to increase their ability to understand other people better.

This can be achieved through therapy and relationship counseling.

If you’re having a challenging time with relationship issues, consider talking with a licensed therapist who specializes in avoidant personality disorder and/or therapists with expertise in attachment-based issues.

Wondering what avoidants are like in relationships? Here's how avoidants behave and strategies to cope better.

Ultimately, avoidants are as capable of experiencing healthy and fulfilling relationships as anyone else. Most importantly, they need to understand the challenges they face and the tools they need to handle them.

Find out your attachment style

Take our 3-Minute Attachment Style Quiz to find out your personal attachment style, and you'll get a free customized report.

Knowing your attachment style is helpful to developing a better understanding of your interactions and behavior in relationships. Results are completely confidential.

Question 3

What Is the Best Treatment for Avoidant Personality Disorder (AVPD)?

Accepted Answer

The best treatment for people with avoidant personality disorder (AVPD) is psychotherapy or talk therapy.

However, this presents an obvious problem since those diagnosed with avoidant personality disorder tend to evade transparency and openness in therapy.

Research suggests that practicing social skills and focusing on decreasing a client's sensitivity when it comes to possible criticism and/or rejection may be effective.

Wondering what avoidants are like in relationships? Here's how avoidants behave and strategies to cope better.

Ultimately, avoidants are as capable of experiencing healthy and fulfilling relationships as anyone else.

Most importantly, they need to understand the challenges they face and the tools they need to handle them.

How to get help

Seeking professional help is often beneficial to learn coping mechanisms and develop or strengthen relationships of all kinds.

In a therapeutic relationship, an avoidant can “practice” a social relationship with their therapists and ask candidly about how they are being perceived.

If you’re having a challenging time with relationship issues, consider talking with a licensed therapist who specializes in avoidant personality disorder and/or therapists with expertise in attachment-based issues.

Find out your attachment style

Take our 3-Minute Attachment Style Quiz to find out your personal attachment style, and you'll get a free customized report.

Knowing your attachment style is helpful to developing a better understanding of your interactions and behavior in relationships.

Question 4

What Is an Avoidant Attachment Style?

Accepted Answer

Avoidant attachment style is one of the four types of attachment styles based on attachment theory.

People with avoidant personality disorder (AVPD) and/or avoidant attachment style are remarkably self-sufficient, self-motivated, and oftentimes uneasy with intimacy.

They keep everyone an arm's distance away by the way they carefully construct their lives.

Avoidants become experts at avoiding or escaping situations where they could feel vulnerable.

In other words, they avoid potential heart-break or rejection of partners by simply avoiding relationships altogether.

Attachment theory proposes that infants have a built-in survival-based need to bond with their parents or a primary caregiver.

This bond or attachment provides a sense of security to the infant.

However, not all parents or caregivers provide consistent, reliable care, and the child soon learns that they cannot rely on anyone but themselves.

How to get help with relationship issues

If you’re having a challenging time with relationship issues, consider talking with a licensed therapist who specializes in avoidant personality disorder and/or therapists with expertise in attachment-based issues.

Wondering what avoidants are like in relationships? Here's how avoidants behave and strategies to cope better.

Ultimately, people with avoidant attachment style are as capable of experiencing healthy and fulfilling relationships as anyone else.

Most importantly, they need to understand the challenges they face and the tools they need to handle them.

Find out your attachment style

Take our 3-Minute Attachment Style Quiz to find out your personal attachment style, and you'll get a free customized report.

Knowing your attachment style is helpful to developing a better understanding of your interactions and behavior in relationships. Results are completely confidential.

How Do You Get Diagnosed With Avoidant Personality Disorder?

How to get help

Find out your attachment style

Related questions about avoidant personality

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