Avoidant Vs Dependent Personality Disorder

Personality disorder affects an individual's cognition, their interpersonal relationships and impulse control. These people face problems with their sense of self. People with personality disorders cause difficulty in their own lives as well as in the lives of others.

Avoidant Personality Disorder

These individuals are extremely introverted and show social inhibition, due to which they are unable to form or maintain social relationships. They are hypersensitive to criticism and fear being criticized. As a result, they are reluctant to seek out other people. They do not enjoy their loneliness, on the other hand, they yearn for affection and acceptance.

Their inability to form social relationships causes anxiety and depression. These individuals are usually extremely self -conscious and lack self-esteem. When a person with avoidant personality disorder is part of a social situation, they will avoid speaking to anyone, fearing that they will say the wrong thing or get rejected or be made fun of. Feeling socially inept is the most stable feature of this disorder. Due to their extreme fear of rejection and criticism, these individuals tend to reject job offers and avoid new experiences and emotions, this includes avoidance of positive emotions as well.

The causes for avoidant personality disorder are unknown. However, researchers believe that few traits of this disorder may be inherited. Environmental factors such as rejection and humiliation from parents and friends or experience of emotional abuse, may be a contributing factor. According to studies, the origins of this disorder may be innate. Infants and children with shy and inhibited temperament may develop avoidant personalities when they enter adolescence or adulthood.

Dependent Personality Disorder

Individuals with dependent personality disorder display clingy and submissive behavior. They feel an extreme need to be taken care of. These individuals see themselves as inadequate and therefore, fear the thought of having to live alone or the thought of possible separation. These individuals depend heavily on the people around them, such as their family members, spouse or friend. In order to keep people involved with them, they place the needs and views of their caregiver over their own.

People with dependent personalities often fear losing the person who supports them, therefore they fail to stand up for themselves or get angry at others. This is why people with dependent personalities may continue to stay in a relationship that is physically and emotionally abusive.

Although these individuals have good work skills and may be competent, they still lack the confidence because they feel inadequate on their own. These individuals are unable to make simple everyday decisions without relying on the advice and reassurance of others.

Around 1-2% of the general population suffer from this mental disorder and it is more common among females than males. Studies show that dependent personality traits such as, dependence and anxiousness are genetically influenced. Developmental factors such as growing up with authoritarian and overprotective parents, play an important role in the development of this disorder. These children tend to grow up believing that their well being depends on their because they are incompetent on their own.