When Anxiety Becomes a Personality Disorder

A very severe anxiety can sometimes lead doctors to diagnose people with personality disorders. Symptoms of the two most prevalent ones are described in this article.

Anxious (Avoidant) Personality Disorder is characterized by pervasive and persistent emotions of insecurity, shyness, tension, and apprehension. The person believes they are undeserving, unlikable, and inept socially, and not that important compared with other people. These feelings often mean the affected individual avoids relationships unless certain that they are liked by the other person.

Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder comes in two forms: 'impulsive type' and 'borderline type', both have the following characteristics: a strong inability to think and plan ahead in combination with no real self-control and the occasional sudden outburst of extreme anger. This anger can itself lead to other behaviors such as violence, particularly if these acts are challenged or stopped by people in the vicinity.

Impulsive type emotional instability manifests itself with a low level of being able to control impulses. Violence and threatening behavior are frequent, and more often than not are direct responses to others criticizing the person affected.

Borderline-type emotional instability can be characterized by strong doubts about personal aims, image, and sexual preferences, leading to upset and distress. Debilitating feelings of emptiness can promote suicide or at the very least self-harming. People get involved in emotionally taut, constrained relationships which frequently have crises, but which they try to remain in to avoid being abandoned.

As yet the diagnosis of this mental condition is controversial since its causes and treatments are not fully agreed upon. Certain sufferers benefit from being emotionally open enough to discuss past difficult and upsetting experiences. Through airing their problems they become able to better identify risky situations and so learn how to then deal with them.