Difference between SP and Avoidant Personality Disorder?
MikeMathis25
Disorder?
crackwalker
"MikeMathis25" <mikema...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20031114220923...@mb-m24.aol.com...
> What exactly is the difference between Social Phobia and Avoidant
Personality
> Disorder?
Avoidant Personality Disorder DSM-IV Definition
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
is characterized by marked social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, and
extremely sensitive to criticism. Individuals wish to but are fearful of any
involvement with others. They are terrified by the thought of being
embarrassed in front of others. They avoid situations that give them social
discomfort, this in many cases leads to social withdrawal.
Individuals with this Cluster C Personality Disorder are socially inhibited,
usually feel inadequate and are overly sensitive to criticism.
Diagnostic criteria for 301.82 Avoidant Personality Disorder (cautionary
statement) A pervasive pattern of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy,
and hypersensitivity to negative evaluation, beginning by early adulthood
and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by four (or more) of the
following:
avoids occupational activities that involve significant interpersonal
contact, because of fears of criticism, disapproval, or rejection
is unwilling to get involved with people unless certain of being liked
shows restraint within intimate relationships because of the fear of being
shamed or ridiculed
is preoccupied with being criticized or rejected in social situations
is inhibited in new interpersonal situations because of feelings of
inadequacy
views self as socially inept, personally unappealing, or inferior to others
is unusually reluctant to take personal risks or to engage in any new
activities because they may prove embarrassing
Echoed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,
fourth Edition. Copyright 1994 American Psychiatric Association
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Symptoms
Avoidant personality disorder has three major characteristics:
Social inhibition
People with this disorder may avoid social settings while at the same time
desiring social relationships. Even when able to form relationships, they
are clingy and fearful the relationship will end. These people usually
become introverts because social situations are so uncomfortable. Because of
their social inhibition, they will avoid occupations that involve
significant contact with others.
Feelings of inadequacy
Individuals with avoidant personality disorder view themselves as socially
undesirable. They desperately want to be liked but their low self-esteem,
oversensitivity, and fear of rejection keeps them from being involved in
social relationships until it is clear that they will be accepted.
Oversensitive to negative evaluation
Because people with this disorder fear embarrassing themselves in social
situations, they may avoid occupational activities because they fear
criticism, disapproval, or rejection. Those with avoidant personality
disorder have a basic mistrust for others and believe that others are always
watching and being critical of them.
Less than 1% of the general population has this disorder.
Dual Diagnosis
Many people diagnosed with a personality disorder have more than one
diagnosis. Socialphobia (Social Anxiety) is quite often diagnosed with
Avoidant Personality Disorder.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
DSM-IV Definition
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Socialphobia
Definition
Social Phobia ( Social Anxiety Disorder ) is a persistent fear, without
apparent justification of social or performance situations. A person may
feel that their behavior well be scrutinized by others, leading to
embarrassment and a anxiety response in the form of a situationally bound or
a situationally predisposed Panic Attack.
ONSET:
COMMON: Mid-teens.
LESS COMMON: Emergence from social inhibition ( including shyness ) in
childhood.
Diagnostic Criteria ( DSM-IV )
NOT DUE TO A SUBSTANCE, GENERAL MEDICAL CONDITION, OR OTHER DISORDER. SEE:
CAUSING ANXIETY.
Persistent and marked fear of showing the symptoms of anxiety, humiliating,
or embarrassing ones self in a social or performance situation(s). There may
be more then one social or performance situation that renders fear. Children
will show anxiety in peer settings and not just then interacting with
adults. Exposure to the social or performance situation(s) that is feared,
can lead to embarrassment and a anxiety response in the form of a
situationally bound or a situationally predisposed Panic Attack. In children
the anxiety may be expressed it the form of crying, tantrums, freezing up,
or clinging. Recognize this fear is excessive or unreasonable, children may
not recognize this. The feared social or performance situation(s) may be
avoid or endured with intense distress and interferes significantly with a
persons normal daily routine. ( E.g., school, work, social activities,
relationships )
If under 18 symptoms present of at least 6 months.
Specify Types
Generalized: Includes most social or performance situations.
SEE: Avoidant Personality Disorder.
Social anxiety disorder (social phobia) is a much more common problem than
past estimates have led us to believe. Socialphobia (Socialphobia disorder)
is the third largest mental health care problem in the world. Millions of
people all over the world suffer from this devastating and traumatic problem
every day of their lives, either from a specific social phobia or from a
more generalized social phobia.
The physiological manifestations that accompany social anxiety are the fear
and anxiety of social situations that involve interaction with other people,
the fear of being judged and evaluated by other people. people with
Socialphobia are many times seen by others as being shy, quiet, backward,
withdrawn, inhibited, unfriendly, nervous, aloof, and disinterested. People
with Socialphobia want to be "normal" socially, they want to make friends
and they want to be involved and engaged in social interactions. Having
Socialphobia prevents people from being able to do the things they want,
however. They quite often end up hermits shunning the outside world.
People with Socialphobia tend to be sensitive to criticism and rejection,
have difficulty asserting themselves, and suffer from low self-esteem. The
most common fears associated with the disorder are a fear of speaking in
public or to strangers, a fear of meeting new people, and performance fears
(activities that may potentially be embarrassing), such as writing, eating
or drinking in public. Sufferers usually fear more than one type of social
setting.
Individuals with the disorder are acutely aware of the physical signs of
their anxiety and fear that others will notice, judge them, and think poorly
of them. Adults usually recognize that their fears are unfounded or
excessive, but suffer them nonetheless. Exposure to the feared social
situation almost invariably provokes anxiety, which may take the form of a
situationally bound or situationally predisposed panic attack. The feared
social or performance situations that are unavoided are endured with intense
anxiety and distress. The person recognizes that the fear is excessive or
unreasonable.
Onset of the disorder is usually in mid to late adolescence, but children
have also been diagnosed with Socialphobia. Children with the disorder are
prone to excessive shyness, clinging behavior, tantrums and even mutism.
There is usually a marked decline in school performance and the child will
often try to avoid going to school or taking part in age appropriate social
activities. Their fears are centered on peer settings rather than social
activities involving adults, with whom they may feel more comfortable.
Triggering Symptoms:
People with Socialphobia usually experience significant distress in the
following situations:
Being introduced to other people
Being teased or criticized
Being the center of attention
Social situations where the person exhibits excessive self-consciousness
Being watched or observed while doing something
Having to say something in a formal, public situation
Meeting people in authority ("important people/authority figures")
Feeling insecure and out of place in social situations ("I don't know what
to say.")
Embarrassing easily (e.g., blushing)
Meeting other peoples' eyes
Symptoms of Socialphobia manifest themselves physically and can include:
palpitations
tremors
sweating
diarrhea
confusion
blushing
All of the above when in social situations are particularly common and often
cause the sufferer further embarrassment.
Socialphobia is many times mixed up with panic disorder.
People with Socialphobia do not experience panic attacks, in which the
principal fear is of having a medical problem (e.g., heart attack).
People with Socialphobia realize that it is anxiety and fear that they are
experiencing. They may say things like "It was awful and I paniced!", but,
when questioned, they are talking about feeling highly anxious. They are not
talking about the fear of having a medical problem. People with Socialphobia
tend not to go to hospital emergency rooms after an anxiety problem. People
with panic disorder many times go to hospital emergency rooms, because they
feel there is something medically and physically wrong with them.
High rates of alcoholism and other substance abuse, family difficulties and
problems, lack of personal relationships, and difficulty in obtaining and
continuing with employment are among the everyday problems experienced by
many people with Socialphobia disorder.
karl...@my-deja.com
> What exactly is the difference between Social Phobia and Avoidant Personality
> Disorder?
Avoidant Personality Disorder is just another way of saying you have a
severe case of Social phobia. APD is a rarely used term.
karl...@my-deja.com
> Disorder?
Avoidant Personality Disorder is just another way of saying you have a
O_zean
only teh second one sounds sooo uncool.....but you do not avoid antyhing,
besides social contact. You can walk on the street or in the par and work.
You onl y hate partys and being confronted to lots of people. You will do
fine with 1 or 2 people at the time.
<karl...@my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:8dfc15e0.03111...@posting.google.com...
riccip
> What exactly is the difference between Social Phobia and Avoidant Personality
>Disorder?
Basically Avoidant Personality Disorder *is* Social Phobia, only
in it's more severe form. The differences are subtle and
immaterial, and only of interest to docs so they can put the
correct tick in the right box for insurance purposes. To this end
they came up with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for
Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). Hey, why suffer just one disorder when
the DSM-IV can offer you two for the same money?
You see nobody really knows what SP is. It displays many diverse
characteristics that don't always fit into the tidy and ordered
medical definitions our docs would like. This confounded the
white coats until a few years ago when some bright spark came up
with the idea of putting anything they couldn't easily categorise
into a box marked "Personality Disorder".
Neat idea, but there were too many widely differing disorders to
fit in that one small box. So they got hold of some more boxes
and labeled them with pretty names like:
Obsessive-Compulsive
Avoidant
Paranoid
Histrionic
Sadistic
Schizotypal
Compensatory Narcissistic
Schizoid
Passive-Aggressive
Depressive
Masochistic
Dependent
Narcissistic
Antisocial
Borderline
Cyclothymic
Then they ran out of boxes. So if they can't fit you into any of
those boxes they are quite happy to take a bit from here and a
bit from there then run you up a custom diagnosis on the spot. So
if you fancy being Avoidant Schizotypal with Compensatory
Narcissistic tendencies please be my guest.
However I have it on good authority that the docs are out there
right now gathering up even more boxes, in time for the fifth
edition of the DSM, slated for 2007, which will <quote>
"incorporate a conceptual structure for psychiatry that seeks to
identify the essence of mental disorders as expressions of
psychological life in a context of pathology and misdirection."
<end quote>
Impressed huh? Me neither.
Personally I'd advise anyone not to get too hung up on the
medical definitions or their confusing criteria otherwise they'll
have you believing you are paranoid, schizoid or just plain nutz.
If you think you are SP be satisfied with that because anything
else is just a matter of severity or individual flavour.
Riccip
================================================
***"Do I have SOCIAL PHOBIA?"
http://www.mge.clara.net/sp/spdef.htm