How Someone with Avoidant Personality Disorder Shows Up In Relationships

It's a game of give, take, and patience.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash

What do you know about avoidant personality disorder? If you’re part of the 98% of Americans who *aren’t* afflicted by this unpleasant condition, that makes sense. However, if you’re one of the estimated 2.5% of the poulation who does battled with avoidant personality disorder, you’ll know just how hard life (and love) can be when you’re running from yourself.

As rare as it seems, more and more people are being diagnosed with avoidant personality disorder every day. What toll does it take on their lives? More importantly, how does it change their relationships and the families that they build? This becomes one of the biggest questions for the avoidant personality. How do you make love work when you have a pathological belief that you’re not worthy of love or taking up space?

What is avoidant personality disorder?

When it comes to the broad spectrum of personality disorders, avoidant personality disorder (AVPD) is a particularly tough one to deal with. People with AVPD struggle their entire lives with feelings of chronic inadequacy. Never really feeling comfortable in their own skin, they can be extremely sensitive to critcism and struggle to interact (healthily) with others.