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Personality Disorders (Cluster C) - 'Anxious' and 'Nervous'

Updated: Jan 22, 2020

Let’s continue from last week with the last cluster of personality disorders. Personality disorders in Cluster C are characterised by anxious and nervous behaviours.


The personality disorders under this cluster include: avoidant personality disorder, dependent personality disorder and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.

Avoidant Personality Disorder

People with avoidant personality disorder are extremely shy, tend to feel inadequate and are very sensitive to rejection (Kivi & Leonard, 2017).

Those with this disorder may fear (Kivi & Leonard, 2017):

  • Being rejected

  • Being disapproved of

  • Being embarrassed

  • Getting criticised

  • Making friends

  • Getting into intimate relationships

  • Being ridiculed

They might also have trouble believing that others like them and might misinterpret neutral statements or actions as negative ones as they are susceptible to criticism and rejection.

Dependent Personality Disorder

Those with dependent personality disorder are unable to be alone and may be anxious when others are not around them (Kahn & Kristeen, 2018). They depend on others to be comforted, reassured, advised and supported (Kahn & Kristeen, 2018).


People with dependent personality disorder might (Kahn & Kristeen, 2018):

  • Be submissive

  • Rely on others (friends/family) to make decisions

  • Require constant reassurance

  • Be hurt easily when disapproved of

  • Feel nervous and isolated when left alone

  • Fear being rejected

  • Be too sensitive to criticism

  • Not be able to be alone

  • Tend to be naïve

  • Fear being abandoned

Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder

Individuals with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder has a need for extreme perfectionism, neatness and order. They also feel a serious need to enforce their personal standards on their outside environment. This is different from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. People with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder believe that their thoughts and behaviours are correct and everyone else is wrong.


They might exhibit symptoms like:

  • Being stiff, formal or rigid

  • Being very frugal with money

  • Having a great need to be on time

  • Having a great need for order

  • Being so devoted to work, their family or social relationships suffer

  • Having a tendency to hoard worn or useless things

  • Being unable to delegate or distribute work as they are afraid things will not be done correctly

  • Being fixated with lists

  • Needing to be so perfect that tasks cannot be completed

  • Needing to adhere strictly to rules and regulations

  • Needing to adhere strictly to moral and ethical codes

  • Having a sense of righteousness on how things should be done

Here is a video that summarises up the three personality disorders introduced.


We hope that with this brief introduction to the personality disorders under Cluster C, you now have a better understanding of these anxious and nervous personality disorders.


This article marks the end of our introduction to different mental health disorders.


Next week, we will be sharing our reflections on a volunteering experience that we embarked on during the duration of this project. Stay tuned for the reflections!


References


Kahn, A., & Kristeen, C. (2018, September 29). Dependent Personality Disorder: Causes, symptoms, and support. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/dependent-personality-disorder.


Kivi, R., & Leonard, M. (2017, April 19). Avoidant Personality Disorder: Causes, symptoms, diagnosis. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/avoidant-personality-disorder.


Watson, K. (2018, September 29). Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD). Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/obsessive-compulsive-personality-disorder.

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