Avoidant Personality Disorder, A Simple Guide To The Disorder, Diagnosis, Treatment And Related Conditions

By Kenneth Kee

This book describes Avoidant Personality Disorder, Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases

People with avoidant personality disorder (AVPD) have a life term pattern of extreme shyness.

Avoidant Personality Disorder (AVPD) is a mental health disorder featured by:
1. Avoidance of social interaction,
2. Sensitivity to rejection,
3. Feelings of inadequacy,
4. Extreme shyness, and
5. Feelings of inferiority.

They also feel insufficient and are hypersensitive to rejection.

AVPD can produce psychiatric symptoms that cause serious problems with relationships and work.

Avoidant Personality Disorder occasionally referred to as Anxious Personality Disorder, or Avoidant is under the category of Cluster C or Anxious based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV-TR), which is used to define mental health.

It is a mental health disorder that happens in infancy and becomes worse in adulthood.

These people may show extreme shyness and social withdrawal, feelings of anxiety, insecurity, and inferiority.

Genetic predisposition, infantile temperament, early childhood environment, and attachment style have all been suggested to play a role in the development of AVPD.

Genes and biological factor has an important part in transmitting the disorder but it is not understood clearly.

The inheritability coefficient for AVPD has been evaluated to be 0.64.

Infantile temperament traits linked with a greater diathesis for AVPD are:
1. Rigidity,
2. Hypersensitivity,
3. Low novelty seeking,
4. High harm avoidance, and
5. Overactive behavioral inhibition.

Doctors inform that the dynamic relationship between temperament and attachment can further aggravate the development of AVPD.

This experience presents as the already minimally expressive infant’s distress is met with indifferent responsiveness from the caregiver, exacerbating maladaptive behavior patterns.

These early interactions with caregivers result in fear of intimacy and trust, further engendering a state of hyper-vigilance.

Ultimately, these negative schemas precipitate in avoidant coping strategies to obviate perceived prospective distress.

Other pertinent factors are:
1. Minimal parental encouragement,
2. Caregiver guilt-engendering,
3. Neglect,
4. Abuse.

While the cause of Avoidance Personality Disorder is not known, it is believed that many patients have suffered from child abuse and neglect.

It is due of these that the patient does not trust people

The most frequent symptoms of AVPD are:
1. Avoidance
2. Dependence on those around them
3. Abandonment issues
4. Depression
5. Feeling of inferior to other
6. Severe low self esteem
7. Self-imposed social isolation
8. Severe shyness
9. Hypersensitivity to refection and criticism
10. Feelings of inadequacy
11. Reluctant to join new activity
12. Unwilling to involve with people
13. Reluctant to take personal risks
14. Mistrust of others

If the patient has AVPD, the patient might have problems interacting in social and work settings.

This is since the patient may fear any of these:
1. Rejection
2. Disapproval
3. Embarrassment
4. Criticism
5. Getting to know new people
6. Intimate relationships
7. Ridicule

Treatment such as cognitive behavioral therapy aims at changing the thoughts and behaviors and helps the patient to lead a more normal lifestyle.

The first things treated are:
1. Making eye contact
2. Greeting people
3. Smiling
4. Conversation
5. Being assertive
6. Proper responses in conversation

Avoidant personality disorder is treated with long term psychotherapy along with medicines and most important the willingness of the patient to remove this problem.

TABLE OF CONTENT
Introduction
Chapter 1 Avoidant Personality Dis

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kenneth Kee
• Release date: Oct 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005518905

Kenneth Kee

Medical doctor since 1972.Started Kee Clinic in 1974 at 15 Holland Dr #03-102, relocated to 36 Holland Dr #01-10 in 2009.Did my M.Sc (Health Management ) in 1991 and Ph.D (Healthcare Administration) in 1993.Dr Kenneth Kee is still working as a family doctor at the age of 74However he has reduced his consultation hours to 3 hours in the morning and 2 hours inthe afternoon.He first started writing free blogs on medical disorders seen in the clinic in 2007 on http://kennethkee.blogspot.com.His purpose in writing these simple guides was for the health education of his patients which is also his dissertation for his Ph.D (Healthcare Administration). He then wrote an autobiography account of his journey as a medical student to family doctor on his other blog http://afamilydoctorstale.blogspot.comThis autobiography account “A Family Doctor’s Tale” was combined with his early “A Simple Guide to Medical Disorders” into a new Wordpress Blog “A Family Doctor’s Tale” on http://ken-med.com.From which many free articles from the blog was taken and put together into 1000 eBooks.He apologized for typos and spelling mistakes in his earlier books.He will endeavor to improve the writing in futures.Some people have complained that the simple guides are too simple.For their information they are made simple in order to educate the patients.The later books go into more details of medical disorders.He has published 1000 eBooks on various subjects on health, 1 autobiography of his medical journey, another on the autobiography of a Cancer survivor, 2 children stories and one how to study for his nephew and grand-daughter.The purpose of these simple guides is to educate patient on health disorders and not meant as textbooks.He does not do any night duty since 2000 ever since Dr Tan had his second stroke.His clinic is now relocated to the Buona Vista Community Centre.The 2 units of his original clinic are being demolished to make way for a new Shopping Mall.He is now doing some blogging and internet surfing (bulletin boards since the 1980's) startingwith the Apple computer and going to PC.The entire PC is upgraded by himself from XT to the present Pentium duo core.The present Intel i7 CPU is out of reach at the moment because the CPU is still expensive.He is also into DIY changing his own toilet cistern and other electric appliance.His hunger for knowledge has not abated and he is a lifelong learner.The children have all grown up and there are 2 grandchildren who are even more technically advanced than the grandfather where mobile phones are concerned.This book is taken from some of the many articles in his blog (now with 740 posts) A Family Doctor’s Tale.Dr Kee is the author of:"A Family Doctor's Tale""Life Lessons Learned From The Study And Practice Of Medicine""Case Notes From A Family Doctor"

Book preview

Avoidant Personality Disorder,

A

Simple

Guide

To

The Disorder,

Diagnosis,

Treatment

And

Related Conditions

By

Dr Kenneth Kee

M.B.,B.S. (Singapore)

Ph.D (Healthcare Administration)

Copyright Kenneth Kee 2020 Smashwords Edition

Published by Kenneth Kee at Smashwords.com

Dedication

This book is dedicated

To my wife Dorothy

And my children

Carolyn, Grace

And Kelvin

This book describes Avoidant Personality Disorder, Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases which is seen in some of my patients in my Family Clinic.

(What You Need to Treat Avoidant Personality Disorder)

This e-Book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader.

If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Introduction

I have been writing medical articles for my blog: http://kennethkee.blogspot.com (A Simple Guide to Medical Disorder) for the benefit of my patients since 2007.

My purpose in writing these simple guides was for the health education of my patients.

Health Education was also my dissertation for my Ph.D (Healthcare Administration).

I then wrote an autobiography account of my journey as a medical student to family doctor on my other blog: http://afamilydoctorstale.blogspot.com.

This autobiography account A Family Doctor’s Tale was combined with my early A Simple Guide to Medical Disorders into a new Wordpress Blog A Family Doctor’s Tale on http://kenkee481.wordpress.com.

From which many free articles from the blog was taken and put together into 800 eBooks.

Some people have complained that the simple guides are too simple.

For their information they are made simple in order to educate the patients.

The later books go into more details of medical disorders.

The first chapter is always from my earlier blogs which unfortunately tends to have typos and spelling mistakes.

Since 2013, I have tried to improve my spelling and writing.

As I tried to bring the patient the latest information about a disorder or illness by reading the latest journals both online and offline, I find that I am learning more and improving on my own medical knowledge in diagnosis and treatment for my patients.

My diagnosis and treatment capability has improved tremendously from my continued education.

Just by writing all these simple guides I find that I have learned a lot from your reviews (good or bad), criticism and advice.

I am sorry for the repetitions in these simple guides as the second chapters onwards have new information as compared to my first chapter taken from my blog.

I also find repetition definitely help me and maybe some readers to remember the facts in the books more easily.

I apologize if these repetitions are irritating to some readers.

Chapter 1

Avoidant Personality Disorder

People with avoidant personality disorder (AVPD) have a life term pattern of extreme shyness.

What is Avoidant personality disorder?

Avoidant Personality Disorder (AVPD) is a mental health disorder featured by:

1. Avoidance of social interaction,

2. Sensitivity to rejection,

3. Feelings of inadequacy,

4. Extreme shyness, and

5. Feelings of inferiority.

They also feel insufficient and are hypersensitive to rejection.

AVPD can produce psychiatric symptoms that cause serious problems with relationships and work.

Signs of AVPD infographic

Avoidant Personality Disorder occasionally referred to as Anxious Personality Disorder, or Avoidant is under the category of Cluster C or Anxious based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV-TR), which is used to define mental health.

It is a mental health disorder that happens in infancy and becomes worse in adulthood.

These people may show extreme shyness and social withdrawal, feelings of anxiety, insecurity, and inferiority.

What are the causes of Avoidant personality disorder?

Causes

The cause of AVPD and other personality disorders is not known.

Researchers think genetic and environmental factors might have a part.

Genetic predisposition, infantile temperament, early childhood environment, and attachment style have all been suggested to play a role in the development of AVPD.

Some doctors say that genes and biological factor has an important part in