How is the portrayal of Avoidant Personality Disorder in Movies?
By
PsychReel
This blog will mainly discuss avoidant personality disorder in movies, and also cover topics like what is an avoidant personality disorder, its symptoms, causes, diagnosis, treatment, etc., and answer your frequently asked questions.
How is the portrayal of Avoidant Personality Disorder in Movies?
Avoidant personality disorder has been more or less accurately depicted in the following movies:
- The Glass Menagerie
- Good Dick
- Zelig
- 2011: A space odyssey
Before we jump into the kind of portrayal of avoidant personality disorder in the movies, we need to have a better understanding of this mental health condition that affects one’s life.
What is Avoidant Personality Disorder (AVPD)?
Avoidant personality disorder (AVPD) is a long-term pattern of behavior that is characterized by social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, and rejection sensitivity that causes issues at work and in relationships.
A Cluster C personality disorder, or one that includes anxious and frightened personality disorders, is characterized by severe shyness and sensitivity to criticism from others.
AVPD is frequently linked to other mental health issues such as anxiety disorders, especially social anxiety disorder. People with the disorder avoid situations because they are afraid of rejection or disapproval, which they find tremendously unpleasant.
Symptoms of Avoidant Personality Disorder
Fear of being judged or rejected at work, in social situations, or at school. Even when you are not, you may feel as if you are constantly undesirable in social situations. This is due to the fact that people with avoidant personality disorder have a low tolerance for criticism and frequently believe they are inferior to others.
- Low self-confidence
- Self-isolation
- rejection
- disapproval
- embarrassment
- criticism
- Avoid getting to know new people
- Avoid intimate relationships
- ridicule
- A desire to be liked
- Anhedonia (lack of pleasure in activities)
- Social anxiety as in anxiety about saying or doing something inappropriate
- People-pleasing tendencies
- Avoid decision making
- Self-consciousness at an all-time high
- Fearful and tense body language
- Negative feedback makes you hypersensitive
- Insufficient assertiveness
- Lack of close friends/ social network
- Unwilling to attempt new things or take risks
- Seeing oneself as a social outcast or a loser
Causes of avoidant personality disorder :
It is unknown what causes avoidant personality disorder. However, both genetics and the environment are thought to play an influence. Although it is thought that avoidant personality disorder is passed down in families through genes, it is yet to be verified.
Environmental influences, especially childhood experiences, play a crucial role. Shyness, which is common in early childhood, persists in persons with avoidant personality disorder into adolescence and maturity. Past experiences of parental or peer rejection, which can affect a person’s self-esteem and sense of worth, are common among those with the disorder.
Prevalence of AVPD
It is estimated that about 2.4% of the U.S. population has avoidant personality disorder. It appears to affect men and women equally. Like other personality disorders, avoidant personality disorder symptoms may be noticed in childhood and often begin to create discomfort in adolescence or early adulthood.
Avoidant personality disorder is usually not diagnosed in people younger than 18 years of age like many other personality disorders as there should be evidence that these patterns of behavior are enduring and inflexible that do not readily fade with time.
Diagnosis of AVPD
Only a skilled mental health practitioner may diagnose avoidant personality disorder using criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).
While a family physician can provide the initial diagnosis, your doctor should recommend you to a psychologist, psychiatrist, or other mental health expert for further evaluation.
Because children’s personalities are still growing and characteristics like shyness can be normal childhood experiences that are subsequently outgrown, AVPD is usually diagnosed in adults.
A regular pattern of avoiding social contact, being extremely sensitive to rejection and criticism, and feeling inadequate must be demonstrated by at least four of the following criteria, according to the DSM-5:
- Fear of criticism, disapproval, or rejection leads to avoidance of activities that require extensive social engagement.
- Unwillingness to get engaged with others unless you’re sure they’ll like you.
- Fear of intimate connections where people are afraid of being ridiculed or humiliated
- Preoccupation with criticism or rejection in social circumstances
- Lack of confidence in unfamiliar social circumstances due to a sense of inadequacy
- Feelings of social ineptness, unattractiveness, or inferiority to others
- Fear of embarrassment causes people to be hesitant to take risks or try new things.
Treatment of avoidant personality disorder
The most effective treatment for APD is psychotherapy. Psychodynamic psychotherapy or cognitive behavioural therapy may be used by your therapist. The purpose of therapy is to assist you in identifying your unconscious self-perceptions and how others see you. It also seeks to improve your social and professional functioning.
If you’re facing this, it may be a good idea to seek the help of a therapist or other mental health professional. You can find a therapist at BetterHelp who can help you learn how to cope and address it.
- Psychodynamic psychotherapy
Psychodynamic therapy is a type of talk therapy. It aids in the awareness of your subconscious ideas. It can assist you in comprehending how past events have influenced your current conduct. This allows you to look back on past emotional hurts and disputes and reconcile them. Then you’ll be able to move forward with a more positive attitude about yourself and how others perceive you. Psychodynamic psychotherapy has a long-term effect, with advantages that endure after treatment is completed.
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)
Another type of talk therapy is cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). A therapist assists you in identifying and replacing problematic ideas and mental processes in CBT. Your therapist will push you to question and evaluate your own thoughts and beliefs to discover if they are true. They’ll also assist you in developing new, healthier thoughts.
- Medication
There are no drugs approved by the FDA to treat personality problems. If you have co-occurring depression and anxiety, your doctor may prescribe antidepressant medicines.
Coping with avoidant personality disorder
Recognizing the indicators of avoidant personality disorder is one of the first steps toward improving quality of life. You’ll be able to better work with your therapist to identify strategies to work around your specific symptoms if you understand them.
Consider including friends and family in your treatment so they can better understand what you’re going through and how they might assist you.
Finding healthy coping strategies that keep you from turning to drugs or alcohol, smoking, overeating, or self-harm when you’re having a hard time is also important.
Portrayal of avoidant personality disorder in the movies
Movies are more than just something to do when you’re bored. There are numerous excellent films that deal with mental illnesses or symptoms of mental illnesses. Films can be more than just a source of amusement.
These films can help you understand more about yourself and find others who are going through similar difficulties.
- The Glass Menagerie
It was released in 1973. It involved Katharine Hepburn, Sam Waterston, Joanna Miles. Although the novel is recounted from Tom Wingfield’s perspective, it is about his sister, Laura, who suffers from avoidant personality disorder. She is unable to interact with others in a regular manner. Her energies are focused on a collection of glass animals.
- Good Dick
The movie was released in 2008. The cast involved Marianna Palka, Jason Ritter, Eric Edelstein. The storyline revolves around a young video store employee who falls in love with a regular customer who suffers from a personality illness known as avoidant personality disorder. He gets her address after failing to impress her at the store and tries his hardest to win her heart.
- Zelig
Zelig was released in 1983. The cast included Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Patrick Horgan Miles. It is a fictitious documentary about the lives of a man who suffers from a personality disorder known as avoidant personality disorder. He tries to seem and act like anyone he interacts with in order to avoid revealing his true personality.
- 2001 A space odyssey
This is an older film, but it exemplifies how someone with an Avoidant Personality thinks and why they are unable to operate.
This is one of those science fiction films that will become science reality in the not-too-distant future. HAL is a computer that appears in the movie. Hal is a computer that has attained what appears to be consciousness through artificial intelligence.
Hal has been built to communicate with the crew and keep them company while on a mission, as well as control all aspects of the spacecraft. HAL also contains a hard-coded feature that prevents it from ever lying. It must constantly provide the team with accurate information and never withhold any information.
One day, a top-secret mission becomes available. The mission’s creators don’t even want the crew to know about it because it’s so top-secret. They direct HAL not to inform the crew of the mission’s true nature. In other terms, HAL is told he must lie.
HAL’s hard-coded programming states that he will never lie or hide the truth from anyone. These two sets of guidelines are diametrically opposite. Telling the truth and lying at the same time is impossible.
HAL gets a psychosis as a result of this. In a psychosis, HAL loses contact with reality and is unable to distinguish between what is real and what is not. This is a lot like what the one that suffers from Avoidant Personality (Avp) goes through. One of the signs of AVP is that they despise and fear people.
Human nature (hard coding) is to love and be among other people. This indicates that the person who has Avp loves and despises individuals at the same time. It’s difficult to love and despise somebody at the same time, and to want to be around them but avoid them due to fear.
As a result, the person with Avp develops psychosis and loses touch with reality.
Conclusion
If you suspect someone you know or love is suffering from an avoidant personality disorder, it’s critical to encourage them to seek help. It’s doubtful that symptoms and their effects on relationships will improve without expert treatment, such as talk therapy. We discussed avoidant personality disorder at lengths and also the portrayal of the avoidant personality disorder in the movies
Frequently asked questions (FAQs): How is the portrayal of Avoidant Personality Disorder in Movies?
What is the prognosis for people who suffer from avoidant personality disorder?
People with AVPD who do not receive therapy may become isolated. As a result, individuals may develop a second mental disorder, such as:
Depression, agoraphobia, and substance abuse
Treatment has no effect on your personality. You’ll almost certainly always be introverted and struggle with social and professional connections. Treatment, on the other hand, can help you improve your symptoms and strengthen your capacity to relate to people.
Who is at risk of avoidant personality disorder?
It is impossible to predict who will develop APD. As children, people with the disease are usually quite shy. Not every shy youngster, however, goes on to acquire the condition. Similarly, not everyone who is shy as an adult has the disease.
If you have APD, you’ve probably noticed that your shyness has increased as you’ve gotten older. It could have gotten to the point where you started avoiding specific people and circumstances.
What is a personality disorder?
A personality disorder is a mental disorder that affects people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. It may be difficult to manage emotions and engage with others as a result of this.
Long-term patterns of behaviour that don’t alter significantly over time are also part of this sort of disease. These habits can cause mental anguish in some people and make it difficult to function at work, school, or at home.
Personality disorders are classified into ten categories. They’re divided into three major groups:
cluster A
cluster B
cluster C
What is an example of avoidant personality disorder?
Ans. People with avoidant personality disorder avoid social interaction, even at work, because they fear they might get disapproval or rejection and even criticism. For instance, not attending an interview because of rejection.
Can avoidant personality disorders love?
Those who could live at least somewhat contentedly with an avoidant personality are those who do not want or need a high level of emotional intimacy with their romantic partner. Such individuals may be content to live with someone and coexist, without needing a high level of communication about thoughts and feelings.
What are avoidance behaviors?
These behaviours are those where people either do not enter a situation or leave after they have entered. They include distraction or even avoidance.