Some people are overly shy in nature and keep isolated. But avoidant personality is more than this shy nature. He is marked with high rate of social inhibition and he is highly sensitive to criticism. He cannot tolerate being criticized by others. He would have serious problem in maintaining relationships with loved ones and family. About 1-2% of the general population has avoidant personality disorder.
Symptoms :
These people avoid social gathering or any activity that involves group of people in the fear of being criticized. According to them they are unwanted elements in the society though in reality that is not so. They believe that they are far inferior to others and hence have low self esteem which prevents them from interaction with the society.
Some of the prominent signs of avoidant personality disorder are:-
- Avoiding activities that involve interpersonal contacts in the fear of being rejected or criticized
- Generally they are unwilling to interact with strangers
- Even with intimate relations they maintain self control due to the fear of being ridiculed
- Most of the time they are preoccupied with thoughts of being rejected and criticized
- Perceive themselves to be far inferior to others
- Cannot tolerate any new relations or task involving new interpersonal action
- They hesitate to take personal risks in involving with new activities in the fear of getting embarrassed
Many types of personality disorder become significant only when the person attains adulthood. Few of the symptoms may appear during adolescence but the person is still under development which would shape his/her personality further. By the time the person reaches 45-50 years they would experience extreme range of symptoms leading to distressed relationships.