Personality disorder (PD) is a set of persistent traits that develop in childhood and accompany a person for the rest of his life. A personality disorder determines a person's relationships with other people and their behavior. An outdated term for personality disorder is psychopathy.
Unlike a disease, which has a beginning and an end, a personality disorder is a pathology that accompanies a person from birth to death. RL criteria:
- Stability and consistency. Human traits begin to appear in childhood, manifest themselves during adolescence, and fade (but do not disappear) after 50 years.
- Social disintegration. A person’s disharmonious traits affect their style of behavior in areas of life: family, work, interpersonal relationships (friends, acquaintances), hobbies.
- Deviation from the norm. A person's traits are considered psychopathic when they fall outside the cultural norms in which the person lives.
Anxiety disorder (anxious personality disorder) is characterized by social isolation, feelings of inferiority, and excessive sensitivity to social evaluation. According to Gannushkin, anxious-avoidant personality disorder is identical to psychasthenic personality disorder.
The concept of accentuation
Accentuation of character is considered to be an extreme manifestation of the norm, bordering on psychological pathology. This concept is akin to accents, emphasis, and indications of weak character traits that negatively manifest themselves in an individual’s behavior. Basically, the formation of accentuation occurs in adolescence, since this is a crisis and important moment in the development of personality.
If a teenager was able to survive this period without problems, then his type of accentuated personality will manifest itself only in stressful and traumatic situations. If something has affected the normal development of the personality, there is a chance that the person will develop an anxious personality type.
Prevention
A natural way to prevent attacks and protect against anxiety is to avoid situations that cause anxiety. But evasive behavior perpetuates the problem. It is much more effective to face the trigger head on. Gradually expose yourself to “risky” situations and things. Make brief eye contact with your neighbor or colleague, prepare a short lecture, presentation to work colleagues, walk around a crowded square.
Such psychological “exercises” will teach you how to manage threatening situations and lead to a gradual reduction in anxiety. Cognitive behavioral psychotherapy is based on this principle.
Anxiety as a character trait
This type of personality is sometimes combined with other pronounced traits, such as suspiciousness and timidity. It is expressed in hypertrophied anxiety. Such people are used to worrying about everything and everyone. These are suspicious, superstitious people who can see danger in almost everything.
They are also constantly overcome by doubts in their thoughts and actions. This, in turn, gives rise to timidity, indecisiveness, lack of initiative, and modesty. If such a person makes a mistake, then in the future, if he finds himself in a similar situation, he will most likely try to avoid it or will be inactive. Any failure for an anxious personality type is a personal catastrophe that he will experience for a long time and hard.
Diagnostics
People with serious anxiety neurosis are frequent visitors to clinics and doctors' offices. Their problem is often hidden behind vague physical manifestations or various diseases.
A common feature of neuroses is an unjustified fear of some part of an ordinary day, which can take almost any form. This problem is common to many types of anxiety neuroses, and other conditions must be monitored to determine a specific disorder. Comparison of specific criteria is important for an accurate diagnosis.
Peculiarities
Such individuals have many fears and phobias. Even if, with age, they manage to control or hide them, they still remain, and this is a serious problem that needs to be solved. After all, such internal experiences distort and disrupt a person’s socialization and adaptation, which is why the level of social activity decreases. People who have an anxious-suspicious personality type are not able to refuse. They never try to defend their point of view, do not argue, and speak modestly with people if they are older or occupy a higher level in the social hierarchy. Their personal and professional sphere may suffer due to low resistance to stress and vulnerability.
Causal factors
Anxiety syndrome is a polyetiological disease. Its specific cause has not been clearly determined. It is believed that various factors are to blame for the development of pathology, from genetic predisposition to psychological trauma.
Causes of anxiety syndrome and unstable human psyche:
- Chronic daily stress, psychological trauma, overwork, emotional overstrain, high mental stress,
- Hereditary predisposition
- Traumatic brain injury,
- Neurological disorders - stroke, epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease,
- Neurotic conditions - neurasthenia, depression, hysteria,
- Mental illnesses – schizophrenia, paranoia, mania,
- Long-term chronic dysfunction of internal organs - heart, lungs and gastrointestinal tract,
- Endocrinopathies - hyperthyroidism, pathology of the adrenal glands,
- Deficiency or imbalance of neurotransmitters: serotonin - the mood hormone and adrenaline - the hormone of fear and anxiety,
- Lack of protein in the daily diet,
- Hypo- and avitaminosis,
- Physical overexertion or physical inactivity,
- Melancholic temperament or anxious character accentuation,
- Taking certain medications - barbiturates, anticonvulsants, benzodiazepines, calcium channel blockers, estrogen drugs, fluoroquinolones, statins.
Anxiety disorder syndrome affects overly emotional, timid, shy, vulnerable and very impressionable people who skillfully hide their feelings and experiences. In individuals with a genetic predisposition to anxiety, the development of pathology is aggravated by exogenous negative influences - constant criticism, unrealistic demands, ignoring achievements and lack of emotional support.
Individuals at risk are most susceptible to the development of anxiety syndrome:
- People who have experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence
- Women in certain periods of life - during pregnancy or menopause,
- Persons with low social status and regularly experiencing financial difficulties
- Teenagers during puberty are especially sensitive and emotional,
- Smokers and alcoholics
- Persons whose profession involves heavy mental and physical stress,
- Losers in personal life.
Psychotraumatic factors contributing to the development of the syndrome:
- Tragic events in the patient's life,
- Loss of a loved one
- disasters,
- Accidents,
- Changing of the living place,
- Lengthy repairs
- Exams passage,
- Job loss,
- Family conflicts,
- Changing your usual routine,
- Smoking, drug addiction, alcoholism.
Other characteristics
Such people are most afraid in life of appearing stupid and showing themselves from a disadvantageous position in front of their interlocutors. They may develop a recheck symptom, which is when the person returns home to check that they have closed the front door. They tend to record negative events and spin even the most insignificant situations to the point of absurdity. What is meant here is that, just having heard the mention of the problem, they already imagine its worst outcome. Moreover, even if the situation in reality does not worsen, they can imagine for a long time how it might develop in the future. This naturally affects their behavior, concentration, performance and other important aspects.
Also, their inability to defend their point of view often puts them in bad situations. If a more confident person sees weakness, he can take advantage of this and shift his responsibilities onto him or blame him for not completing planned work, so that he is responsible to his superiors for the entire team, even if he himself did all the work. This is especially true for those people who have an anxiously responsible personality type. Their attention is very fixated on the feeling of lack of attractiveness and inability to do something well. In other words, they are constantly in disharmony with their inner world and exaggerate their own shortcomings.
Kinds
1. Anxiety-depressive disorder is characterized by feelings of constant anxiety without real sources of danger. It is manifested by pathological changes in the personality of patients and their physical health.
2. An anxious-phobic state is caused by a constant feeling of danger that arises from dwelling on past traumatic events in a person’s life or imaginary fears of the future.
3. Social disorder is manifested by diligent avoidance of any contact with others, even their simple observation of the actions of patients causes them emotional discomfort, criticism is extremely painful for such patients.
4. Adaptive phobia occurs with fear of entering new living conditions.
5. Organic anxiety is a consequence of a somatic disease, therefore, in addition to anxiety, patients exhibit other signs of damage to the body (persistent headaches with loss of orientation in space, memory loss or severe disruptions in the functioning of the heart, pancreas, liver, etc.).
6. Mixed disorder is characterized by signs of anxiety and low mood at the same time.
Tips and tricks
Even anxiety is a mental disorder if it manifests itself too much in a person’s character. All the same, such people are not subject to hospitalization, since such mental deviations can be dealt with on an outpatient basis. Anxiety, suspiciousness, and fears usually overwhelm a person so much that he can no longer get rid of them on his own. Therefore, a visit to a psychologist or psychoanalyst is recommended.
If a person decides to undergo treatment, an anxious personality type requires serious effort and expense to adjust and harmonize the emotional background. In some cases, the problem can be solved without resorting to the help of specialists. There are some general recommendations for people with these behavioral problems. In the end, if you see yourself in the descriptions of this personality type and admit that it’s time to do something about it, then half the work is already behind you, you have realized that there is a problem and it is preventing you from living a normal life.
What worries engulf an anxious person?
Such a person is afraid of everything that surrounds him
- Everything is perceived as a threat. When there are no objective reasons for concern, such an individual will simply invent them.
- An anxious person lives as if he has a radar that can detect trouble.
- Such an individual assumes the possibility of a catastrophe developing. It is important for him to make every effort to be able to eliminate even the slightest complication.
- Such an individual is always careful and tries to keep everything under control.
- In any situation, first of all, it detects a possible risk.
- When there is uncertainty, he will always choose the worst option of possible events, that is, he will not even try to find something good, but will immediately begin to fear the worst.
- When thinking about the future, such a person also thinks about possible threats.
There is a certain situation when increased anxiety turns into a disease that requires treatment. The restless state, endless thoughts about a possible catastrophe, and constant increasing tension are accompanied by other symptoms:
- increased sweating;
- muscle tension;
- tachycardia;
- feeling of a lump in the throat;
- constant vigilance of what is happening.
In this situation, the help of a specialist is very important.
Advice from psychologists
What to do with an anxious and suspicious personality type? First of all, start adjusting your views, attitude towards yourself and the world. You need to get rid of the prisms that your psyche has imposed on your perceptions in order to deal with stressful situations. It is very important to maintain your physical health. Typically, such mental deviations provoke a person to lead a sedentary life. There is also a high probability of psychosomatic disorders.
Psychologists and doctors recommend running, doing physical exercise, massage, swimming and other procedures aimed at maintaining health and relaxing muscles. To understand how to change an anxious personality type, you must learn not to think sometimes. Physical labor and sports are good for getting rid of obsessive thoughts, so to speak, throwing them out of your head. True, getting into the right mindset may require a lot of time and effort at first. It is also important to start thinking positively. Here it is better to work with a psychologist, he will help you get rid of unnecessary stereotypes and attitudes. And in the end, it’s worth overcoming all fears and getting rid of phobias.
Treatment process
Treatment of anxiety is complex, including psychotherapy, medication and physiotherapy, the use of traditional medicine, normalization of work and rest regimes.
If the syndrome has a mild course, and the patient’s condition remains stable and satisfactory throughout the entire period of the disease, non-drug treatment is carried out.
General recommendations and diet
Experts recommend that patients follow the following rules to alleviate their general condition and speedy recovery:
- Change your lifestyle
- To walk outside,
- Move a lot
- Get enough sleep
- Eat a balanced diet,
- Do not drink alcohol and do not smoke,
- Avoid stressful situations
- Learn to relax
- Breathe correctly
- Chat with people, meet friends,
- Train your brain and stay calm.
Patients need to eat a balanced diet, excluding fatty, spicy, salty, smoked, and fried foods from the diet. For normal functioning, the body must receive all the necessary nutrients. If you are deficient in certain elements, you should periodically take multivitamin complexes and dietary supplements. It is useful to eat fruits and vegetables, dairy products, beef, seafood, nuts and other foods that have a beneficial effect on a person’s emotional state and contain vitamins that help the brain work.
Psychotherapeutic influence
The main goal of psychotherapy is to teach the patient to cope with his problem, block it independently and control the emotions that lead to an anxiety disorder.
Experts choose the method of psychotherapeutic treatment depending on the etiology of the disease and the clinical picture. The most effective psychotherapeutic techniques for anxiety syndrome:
- Psychoanalysis,
- Cognitive psychotherapy,
- Behavioral psychotherapy,
- Rational psychotherapy,
- Hypnosis, suggestion.
Psychotherapy replaces negative thoughts and anxious experiences with a joyful and optimistic mood, enhances the effectiveness of psychotropic drugs, eliminates problems with socialization, and reduces the risk of relapse after comprehensive treatment of the syndrome. Psychotherapeutic influence is used to treat patients individually and in groups. Patients learn to behave in difficult life situations and become more confident. The effectiveness of psychotherapy depends on the patient’s desire to cure this condition, as well as on the severity of the syndrome and the presence of concomitant psychopathy. A positive result of treatment is a sustainable change in the patient’s behavior, his adequate reactions to stressful events, memories or planning for his future.
In severe cases, when the syndrome progresses and the condition of patients rapidly deteriorates, they switch to pharmacotherapy.
Medicines, physiotherapy and herbal remedies
Patients are prescribed medicinal correction of the condition using the following groups of drugs:
Tranquilizers - successfully fight panic attacks "Alprazolam", "Clonazepam", "Diazepam",
- Neuroleptics - help to forget about excessive anxious feelings “Tiaprid”, “Sonapax”,
- Antidepressants – normalize the functions of the central nervous system and eliminate mood swings “Amitriptyline”, “Anafranil”, “Imipramine”,
- Nootropics - improve blood supply to the brain “Nootropil”, “Pantogam”, “Piracetam”,
- Adrenergic blockers - eliminate heart pain and palpitations “Atenolol”, “Bisoprolol”,
- Adaptive photographic remedies are widely used in the treatment of anxiety syndrome - “Novo-Passit”, “Nervo-Vit”. They have a long-term sedative effect and reduce the severity of autonomic disorders.
Drug treatment eliminates symptoms, bringing only temporary relief. After discontinuation of drugs, recurrence of the disease is possible. Abstinence often develops when psychotropic medications are abruptly stopped.
Physiotherapy for anxiety-depressive syndrome includes the use of low-frequency currents that normalize the functioning of cerebral structures. Electroconvulsive therapy and oxygen therapy have beneficial effects on the functioning of the brain and other vital organs. During rehabilitation, patients are prescribed restorative and soothing massage, acupuncture, physical therapy, and hardening.
Traditional treatment of anxiety and depression is supplemented with traditional medicine after consultation with a doctor. The most commonly used infusions are mint and hawthorn, horseradish, ginseng, angelica, a decoction of oat straw, valerian root, motherwort herb, lemon balm leaves, St. John's wort, and fireweed herb.
Practical recommendations
To get rid of phobias and fears, psychologists often recommend that people with such a character try performing on stage. Acting helps you get rid of stage and audience fear and try to take on a different role of a completely different person. Take a look, so to speak, from the outside - what a person would look like if he thought and approached life differently. Also, acting, even at an amateur level, helps to cope with neurosis.
One of the characteristics of an anxious personality type is a critical lack of faith in one’s own strengths and oneself to the extent that it is difficult for a person to pronounce words. Vocal therapy also helps with stuttering. Translating words to music helps you pronounce words more clearly and confidently. The person will see that he copes better with the task and his self-esteem will increase. And this, in turn, will have a very good effect on the treatment process.
Symptoms
Anxiety is the main clinical sign of the syndrome. This pathological feeling lasts for at least six months and is a reflection of an internal conflict. Patients perceive and process the information received distortedly. They are in constant anticipation of a possible disaster that threatens themselves or loved ones. In this case, anxiety is not associated with a specific object or situation. Individuals with the syndrome are depressed and upset, apathetic or overly irritable, and inexplicably worried. Their thoughts are full of negativity and pessimism. Patients complain of fatigue and powerlessness, which prevent them from performing their usual activities. This is how problems arise at work, at home and in your personal life. Patients lose interest in activities that they previously enjoyed. Their labor and intellectual activity decreases, they experience stiffness in movements and inhibited reactions. Such troubles increase the level of pathological anxiety. A vicious circle is closed, which is the basis of the syndrome.
Patients often experience mood changes and gradually lose interest in life and communication with others. They suffer from insomnia and often take sedatives, which further aggravates the situation, completely disrupting their rest regime. Some have difficulty falling asleep, others have nightmares, and others sleep restlessly and superficially. Persons with the syndrome constantly experience a feeling of unreasonable fear. New phobias are being added to old ones all the time. Panic attacks occur that are impossible to cope with on your own. They exhaust the patient and worsen his quality of life.
Patients are aggressive. They do not trust even the people closest to them and perceive the world around them as gloomy and dull. Trying to solve problems that do not exist, they waste all their strength and energy to no avail. Patients feel helpless, deeply disappointed in everything, despair and lose hope for a favorable outcome.
In addition to anxiety and fear, the syndrome is manifested by the following mental symptoms:
- Anxiety
- Tension
- agitation,
- Depressed,
- Absent-mindedness,
- Hypersensitivity to visual and sound stimuli,
- Tearfulness,
- Emotional lability
- Obsessive thoughts
- Hypochondria,
- Derealization and depersonalization.
Patients become fussy, fearful and impatient. Their memory deteriorates, their concentration is impaired, and their mental abilities decrease.
Asthenovegetative signs of pathology include:
- Constant fatigue
- Fast fatiguability,
- Cardiac dysfunction, tachycardia, cardialgia,
- Pressure drops,
- Hyperhidrosis,
- Hot flashes, chills,
- Shortness of breath, attacks of suffocation,
- "Lump in the throat,
- Dyspeptic symptoms
- Pain in the abdomen and back muscles,
- Diarrhea or constipation
- Frequent urination,
- Inability to concentrate and relax,
- Hand tremors
- Dizziness,
- Cephalgia,
- Numbness and cramps in the limbs,
- Menstrual irregularities,
- Frigidity and impotence.
In some cases, signs of autonomic dysfunction occur earlier than mental disorders and prevail over them. Patients turn to general practitioners, suspecting the presence of a somatic disease.
In the absence of timely and competent treatment of the pathology, negative consequences and serious complications arise:
- Depression,
- Problems in marital relationships,
- Conflicts in the family and at work, up to divorce and dismissal,
- Violation of social communications,
- Severe dysfunction of cardiovascular structures and endocrine glands,
- Accidents,
- Migrating pain in different parts of the body,
- Functional disorders in the body,
- Worsening of existing diseases,
- Decreased quality of life,
- Suicidal thoughts and their implementation.
