Avoidant Personality Disorder Treatment

The majority of people who suffer from AVPD do not seek medical assistance.

When they do, it’s usually for a particular life situation or other sorts of symptoms like anxiety and depression, and they’ll usually stop treatment after that problem is overcome.

Avoidant personality disorder, like all other personality disorders, can be hard to treat since it is a long-term behavior pattern, and it can be challenging for the individual suffering from it to understand that psychotherapy help is needed and useful.

Sadly, individuals with avoidant personality disorder who do not receive therapy have a poor prognosis—they tend to isolate themselves and use avoidance as their main coping technique.

Treatment, on the other hand, can assist to reduce symptoms and expand the range of coping skills that a person can employ to regulate their anxiety when done correctly. An individual with an avoidant personality disorder will almost always be shy, although avoidance will not be their primary concern.

Talk Therapy For Avoidant Personality Disorder

While additional study is needed to establish which forms of avoidant personality disorder treatments are most helpful, the most effective therapies share some characteristics, including:

• Methods that seek to address the underlying unfavorable emotions and cognitive patterns that are frequent in people with avoidant personality disorder, such as shame, expectations, and low self-esteem that others would reject or dislike.
• More social connections and introducing more social activities to their routines are two behavioral techniques that work to achieve long-term behavior changes.
• Social skills education aims to develop social and communication skills, such as the capacity to read and react appropriately to nonverbal and social signs, resulting in increased confidence and more favorable interactions.
• Individuals with avoidant personality disorder have found that group therapy is more helpful than individual therapy, probably because it allows them to practice communication and social skills in a secure environment.

Psychodynamic therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), and schema therapy are examples of talk therapy for avoidant personality disorders.

Social skills training and group counseling may also be beneficial.

Psychodynamic therapy aims to be conscious of how prior experiences, pain, and conflicts could be responsible for current symptoms. CBT for avoidant personality disorder is useful in learning how to transform counterproductive thinking patterns, whereas psychodynamic therapy aims to be fully cognizant and informed of how prior events, pain, and crisis may be resulting in current symptoms.

Schema therapy for AVPD is an integrated method that incorporates CBT as well as a variety of other therapies. It focuses on the therapist-client interaction with the objective of enhancing the ability to function normally and acquiring insight for change through the knowledge and re-engineering of early childhood events.

“Limited reparenting,” wherein the client acknowledges childhood necessities and learns to build and integrate a healthy parental voice, is a major aspect of schema therapy.

Schema Therapy’s Core Concepts

The patient learns 4 basic concepts in schema therapy:

• How dysfunctional schemas are recurring patterns during one’s life.

Rejection and disconnection, dysfunctional performance and autonomy, defective boundaries, undue responsibility and overwhelming standards, over-vigilance, and inhibition are the 5 patterns that have been identified.

• What coping strategies were learned as a kid? (for instance, fighting back, escape).
• What coping schema methods are being deployed, and how are they counterproductive? (for instance, detachment, avoidance, punishment, compliance).
• How to create healthy adult coping mechanisms and meet basic emotional needs

Medication

Although no medications have been approved particularly for the treatment of avoidant personality disorder, if an individual has other linked conditions such as anxiety or depression, medication may be administered to help with those symptoms.

Antidepressant medicine, for instance, can help with enhancing mood and anhedonia, reducing symptoms of anxiety, and lowering vulnerability to rejection.

Coping

Recognizing the indicators of avoidant personality disorder is among the first steps toward improving the quality of life. You will be able to work more effectively with your therapist to identify strategies to work with your clinical manifestations if you understand them.

Consider including family and friends in your treatment so they can properly appreciate what you are going through and how they can assist you.

Developing healthy coping strategies that keep you from turning to alcohol or drugs, overeating, smoking, or self-harm when you are having a difficult time is also important.