This avoidant personality disorder test assesses if you undergo any relevant symptoms for an avoidant mental illness or if your behavior has changed. You can discover more in this regard below the form.
How does this avoidant personality disorder test work?
This is a short personality test that reveals if you have experienced avoidant personality disorder symptoms, and at what level you have confronted with them so far.
This avoidant personality disorder test is organized in 4 sections with questions and statements that refer to general disorder signs and symptoms a suffering person might experience.
Within sections 1 and 3 the test contains in total 16 questions with avoidant personality disorder symptoms where users can answer shortly by YES or NO, while within sections 2 and 4 the assessment has in total 16 short statements with signs of avoidant personality disorder behavior where users are allowed to check as many symptoms as they experienced.
Please note that the above test should NOT be considered as a substitute for any professional medical or mental assessment service.
Example result
Presence of avoidant personality disorder symptoms: 59.38% - Moderate Avoidant personality disorder
Based on your answers it is likely that you are undergoing moderate levels of avoidant personality disorder. There are important avoidant personality disorder symptoms that bother you. The best advice would be to take a look at it and if you consider necessary you may search for a professional assessment of your mental health especially if what you are experiencing now seems to be getting worse in time. Please note that only a licensed professional has the authority to officially diagnose an individual with avoidant personality disorder symptoms.
What is the avoidant personality disorder?
This mental condition, often abbreviated as AvPD, can be defined as a personality disorder characterized by patterns of social isolation and inhibition, avoidance of social contacts and hypersensitivity to criticism, disapproval or rejection. This is an inflexible pattern affecting cognition, affects, interpersonal relationing and impulses. The major consequences associated with this disorder make themselves felt in social functioning situations. This disorder is also recognized by the alternative name of anxious personality disorder.
There are certain theories behind the causes of this condition that is found to affect between 1.8% and 6% of general population. The most common put in front is that of the biopsychosocial model which implies a combination of biological factors, genetic predisposition and social and psychological factors in the upbringing of the individual.
AvPD symptoms and signs
- Feelings of inadequacy, inferiority or self depreciation
- Sensitive to criticism and highly preoccupied by it
- Avoidance of occupational activities that involve interpersonal contact
- Creating dysfunctional dependencies on someone close
- Patterns of obligation and guilt
- Distorted self image
- Patterns of impulsivity
- Distress caused by simple social interactions
- Fear of abandonment and rejection
- Resorting to worst case scenarios and always or never statements
- Restraint within intimate relationships
- Develops a pattern of experiences and expectations from others
- Mood swings
- Occurrence of panic attacks
- Projection feelings
- Self victimization
- Reluctant to engage in new activities, take risks
- Feelings of helplessness and neglect
Diagnosis and treatment
This is a condition typically diagnosed by a professional such as a psychologist or psychiatrist. There are no specific test to be undergone but a mental health assessment of the symptoms, recurrence, triggers and personal history and then comparing the data with the criteria for diagnosis. Self diagnosis is not advised but as many people suffering from this disorder do not resort to help in the first hand, it is important to be aware of the above signs and to analyze whether you or someone close to you might be affected by this mental illness and then contact a professional.
There are various treatment approaches, the most common and efficient being psychotherapy which aims to reveal the behavior patterns and address them directly, eliminating the cause and building social skills. A specific types of psychotherapy include the psychodynamic one, proposing an analysis of past experiences and their influence or cognitive behavioral therapy which recognizes unhealthy thought processes. When resorting to medication to accompany therapy the most used are antidepressants to address the sensitivity to rejection component of AvDP.
02 Apr, 2015