Avoidant personality disorder AVOIDANT PERSONALITY DISORDER✅ What is logical is that the first symptom is avoidance of anxious and frightening situations. MANIFESTATION: 1⃣ Feeling of discomfort in establishing interpersonal contacts, “verbal clumsiness,” feeling awkward in a social environment. 2⃣ High sensitivity to criticism, refusal and rejection. 3⃣ Fear of being humiliated and disgraced, and as a result, avoidance of dangerous contacts. 4⃣ High need for security, stability and predictability of life. 5⃣ Feeling of constant threat emanating from the world and people.6⃣ Distrust of people, fear of getting closer. With all these manifestations, an urgent need is revealed: 6⃣ need for social contacts, communication, participation, trusting relationships and recognition. IRRITANTS CAN BE: ℹ social rules and requirements to interpersonal relationships. That is, a person with an avoidant disorder will feel discomfort and fear that he will not be able to meet the requirements and rules of society, which can provoke negative evaluative criticism towards him. ℹ hierarchy and ranks of society. That is, if a person does not consider himself to be of a high rank, he may feel shame and will try to avoid expressing himself in society, where he will feel a hierarchy, which, of course, he has created on his own. Very often they create their own systems for dividing people into categories that are not objective, but carry a hierarchy of positions (“who is higher, who is lower,” “who is better, who is worse,” and so on).⏏ public speaking can serve as a trigger avoidant behavior. Fear of being shamed and the frustration of shame (the inability to experience shame when making a mistake) leads to attempts to avoid these situations. INTERNAL EMOTIONAL AND COGNITIVE STATES:⏏ Shame and feelings of guilt, embarrassment from one’s own manifestations.⏏ Hypersensitivity.⏏ Low self-esteem and self-doubt.⏏ Fear and a constant sense of impending threat and danger.⏏ Value judgments, excessive attention to one’s own shortcomings and the shortcomings of others (“can’t trust them”).⏏ Critical thinking and increased vigilance, caution.⏏ Anxiety, restlessness.⏏ Shyness.⏏ Feelings of loneliness and sadness .⏏ Feeling of emptiness from trying to get the desired approval.⏏ Fear of direct confrontation (“I was rejected, I’m bad”).⏏ Fear of making a mistake.⏏ Avoidance of situations that cause stress. BEHAVIORAL MECHANISMS:⚡ High control over speech, facial expressions, movements, behavior. ⚡ Feeling of awkwardness, clumsiness, stiffness, tightness.⚡ Devaluation of oneself and one’s achievements, self-criticism.⚡ Constant tension, feeling of danger, constant analysis of the behavior and speech of other people, self-awareness. SOCIAL COMMUNICATION: 🪶 The need for acceptance, but fear prevents rapprochement and occurs constant distancing from others.🪶 “Testing” and analyzing others for trust.🪶 Increased sensitivity to refusals.🪶 The need for unconditional approval - in the “fusion” of opinions, views, positions. BELIEFS: 🆘 “I’m bad, I’m abnormal and I’m afraid, that they won’t accept me, they will reject me”🆘 “People are evil, they reject me and don’t accept me”🆘 “I am flawed, and therefore I need to constantly try to get approval from others in order to find my belonging to others and be normal”🆘 “I am different, I'm different from others. I am alienated and not accepted by others, I do not belong to any group of people. I need to seek the favor of people in order to be recognized.” “I feel inferior, to be complete I need another person. But I'm not like them and that's why people are not friendly to me. I take a lower position because I’m already like this”🆘 “For the sake of recognition, I must satisfy the needs of others at the expense of my own well-being.” Clinical psychologist, neuropsychologist, specialist in working with mental trauma Nikitina Victoria Nikolaevna