[3] People with AvPD often avoid social interaction for fear of being ridiculed, humiliated, rejected, or disliked.
They often view themselves with contempt, while showing a decreased ability to identify traits within themselves that are generally considered as positive within their societies.
Symptoms include: AvPD is reported to be especially prevalent in people with anxiety disorders, although estimates of comorbidity vary widely due to differences in (among others) diagnostic instruments.
Substance use disorders are also common in individuals with AvPD—particularly in regard to alcohol, benzodiazepines, and opioids[9]—and may significantly affect a patient's prognosis.
[17][18] Specifically, various anxiety disorders in childhood and adolescence have been associated with a temperament characterized by behavioral inhibition, including features of being shy, fearful and withdrawn in new situations.
[20] Childhood emotional neglect[21][22][23][24] and peer group rejection[25] are both associated with an increased risk for the development of AvPD.
[17] Some researchers believe a combination of high-sensory-processing sensitivity coupled with adverse childhood experiences may heighten the risk of an individual developing AvPD.
It refers to a widespread pattern of inhibition around people, feeling inadequate and being very sensitive to negative evaluation.
[32] Data from the 2001–02 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions indicates a prevalence of 2.36% in the American general population.
[43] The avoidant personality has been described in several sources as far back as the early 1900s, although it was not so named for some time.
Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler described patients who exhibited signs of avoidant personality disorder in his 1911 work Dementia Praecox: Or the Group of Schizophrenias.
[44] Avoidant and schizoid patterns were frequently confused or referred to synonymously until Kretschmer (1921),[45] in providing the first relatively complete description, developed a distinction.