Avoidant Personality Disorder Archives

Straight, No Chaser: Personality Disorder Screening Quiz – Now It's Your Turn!

It’s been an interesting week of responses from you on the series of personality disorders. The most common comment was a request for an ability to test oneself. I’ll provide that information to you, but beforehand, here are the links to the other Straight No Chaser posts on personality disorders.

Introduction: Understanding Personality Disorders
Cluster A: Paranoid, Schizoid and Schizotypal Personality Disorders
Cluster B: Narcissistic, Histrionic, Antisocial and Borderline Personality Disorders
Cluster C: Obsessive-Compulsive, Avoidant and Dependent Personality Disorders

We need a disclaimer here. The link to this personality quiz states pretty clearly that it’s for entertainment purposes only. The results will provide you with a trend, not a diagnosis. It’s a good way to reinforce the information from the previous posts and to learn a little bit more about yourself. In case you were wondering, I scored Doctor Personality Disorder.

Here’s the link to the quiz:

http://www.helloquizzy.com/tests/the-personality-disorder-test-5

I welcome any feedback or questions you have about the topic or the quiz. I think it’s safe to say that most of you should have fun with this quiz.
Thanks for liking and following Straight, No Chaser! This public service provides a sample of what 844-SMA-TALK and http://www.SterlingMedicalAdvice.com (SMA) offers. Please share our page with your friends on WordPress. We are also on Facebook at SterlingMedicalAdvice.com and Twitter at @asksterlingmd.

Straight, No Chaser: Obsessive-Compulsive, Avoidant and Dependent Personality Disorders

The final group of personality disorders we will review involves excessive fears expressed through thoughts or behaviors. They include avoidant personality disorder, dependent personality disorder and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. Collectively these comprise the Class C Personality Disorders. Let’s review symptoms of each.

Avoidant personality disorder: think of the shy, hypersensitive loner

Social inhibition, timidity and isolation (e.g. avoiding new activities or meeting strangers)
Abnormal fear of disapproval, embarrassment or ridicule
Avoidance of work and social activities that require interpersonal contact
Constant feelings of inadequacy, inferiority or unattractiveness
Extreme shyness in social situations and personal relationships
Hypersensitivity to criticism or rejection

Dependent personality disorder: you’re happy or sad based entirely on others’ treatment of you

Difficulty disagreeing with others due to excessive fears of disapproval
Excessive dependence on others, feels the need to be taken care of, and is submissive and clingy
Fears having to care or provide for one’s self
Inadequate self-confidence, requiring excessive advice and reassurance from others, even with small decisions
Inadequate self-confidence such that one has difficulty starting or doing projects on own
Tolerance of poor or abusive treatment
Urgent need to start a new relationship when one has ended

Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder: think overly preoccupied with control and order

Desire to be in control of people, tasks and situations with an inability to delegate
Extreme perfectionism, resulting in dysfunction and distress when perfection is not achieved (e.g. inability to finish a project because standards of perfection aren’t met)
Inability to discard previously held broken or worthless objects
Inflexibility about morality, ethics or values
Neglect of friends, family and enjoyable activities because of excessive commitment to work or a project
Preoccupation with details, orderliness and rules
Rigid and stubborn
Tight, miserly control over budgeting and spending money

It is important to note that obsessive-compulsive personality disorder is not the same as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). OCD is a type of anxiety disorder.
It is important to remember that everyone can exhibit some of these personality traits now and again. That said, when these patterns of behavior interfere with one’s activities of daily living, lend a hand. Get help.
Thanks for liking and following Straight, No Chaser! This public service provides a sample of what 844-SMA-TALK and http://www.SterlingMedicalAdvice.com (SMA) offers. Please share our page with your friends on WordPress. We are also on Facebook at SterlingMedicalAdvice.com and Twitter at @asksterlingmd.