Anonymous asked this question on 4/28/2000:

Hi! Could you tell me anything you know about avoidant personality disorder, treatment, etc? thanks

Imhere2listen_help gave this response on 4/29/2000:

The diagnostic criteria for avoidant personality disorder, are 1) avoids occupational activities that involve significant interpersonal contact, becaus of fears of criticism, disapproval, or rejection. 2) is unwilling to get involved with people unless certain of being liked 3) shows restraint with intimate relationships because of the fear of being shamed or ridiculed. 4) is preoccupied with being criticize or ejected in social situations. 5) is inhibited in new interpersonal situations because of feelings of inadequacy 6) views self as socially inept, personally unappealing, or inferior to others. 7) is unusually reluctant to take personal risks to engage in any new activities because they may prove embarressing. There are a couple of associated features, one is a depressed moof, the other is someone who exhibits anxious, fearful, or dependent personality traits. I did some research, and if you go to the library, look up the millon inventories. They go into great detail about every aspect of dealing with a person with avoidant personality disorder. I found a list of Search Engines and Directories to help guide you to finding new information on this particular disorder. Alta Vista Deja News-search internet newgroups Excit GO. com Health AtoZ - Health and medicine HotBot LookSmart Lycos Magellan MEDline- free courtesy of Healthgate Northern Light Open Directory PubMed - National Library of Medicine's MEDLine search Snap Suite101.com WebCrawler Yahoo If you type in personality disorders you ought to be able to find more than enough information of this particular personality disorder. http://www.mentalhealth.net is a great source, and offers the Differential Diagnosis, the Diagnostic Criteria and the Associated Features, and also the different types of ways to get help, and the important factors on the particular help you need to find for someone suffers from this personality disorder. I hope this has been some help, and if you need anything else, you know where I am. :-) Brenda Sue ps, please rate my answer even if you think it's bad, because it is the only way for the site to know if I'm actually helping others or not. Thank-you, and take care.

The average rating for this answer is 1.