Dependent Personality Disorder – What is it and How Should it be Treated?
One of the most frequently diagnosed personality disorders is dependent personality disorder and it is as common among women as among men. During young adulthood or later adolescence, the symptoms are usually noticed both among men and women. This is actually a psychiatric condition which includes the overreliance of a person on other people to meet their physical and emotional needs. As per e-counseling.com’s article, DPD or dependent personality disorder is a sort of anxious personality disorder which is characterized by the incapability of staying alone. People who are suffering from DPD develop different anxiety symptoms whenever there is noone around them.
While there are also people who don’t suffer from this condition but yet get insecurity feelings but the difference is that people with DPD need to be reassured from others. Read on to know more on this kind of signs and symptoms and how they’re treated.
DPD – The symptoms
People with DPD become overdependent on someone else both emotionally and physically and hence they try to spend too much of effort in pleasing those people. People with dependent personality disorder display passive, needy and clinging behavior and who also fear about getting separated from other people. Few other characteristics of personality disorder:
- Incapability of making vital and petty decisions like what to wear or what to cook without asking others or getting reassurance from others
- Trying to avoid all sorts of adult responsibilities by acting helpless or passive or the dependence on a friend or a spouse to make decisions about life and work
- Extreme fear of devastation and abandonment or helplessness whenever there are relationships which die
- Lack of self-confidence and pessimism including the belief that they are not able to take proper care of themselves
- Incapability of starting new tasks or projects due to lack of self-confidence
- Placing the requirements of their caregivers more on the priority list than their own
- Toughness to remain alone
- Willingness to tolerate abuse and mistreatment for others
- Tendency to fantasize and be naive
How can you treat DPD?
As it is the case with different personality disorders, people suffering from dependent personality disorder don’t seek treatment for only the disorder. Psychotherapy can be one of the best methods of treating DPD. The goal of the therapy is to assist the person in getting more active and independent and to learn about healthy relations.
Medication can be used to treat such people with DPD and who are also suffering from various issues like anxiety or depression. Take into account the symptoms and treatments mentioned above.