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Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can develop after one incident of trauma, multiple incidents of trauma, after witnessing a trauma, or even after hearing about a trauma.
Some examples of events that may be traumatic for people are a car accident, a natural disaster, assault, the sudden death of a loved one, divorce, or bullying.
PTSD can cause anxiety, flashbacks, and intense feelings of reliving the trauma, among other symptoms.
Cognitive Symptoms
Emotional Symptoms
Somatic Symptoms
Behavioural Symptoms
The way your family responds to your emotional needs causes you to change the way you deal with your emotions. There are only two ways you can do this – turn your emotions down (avoidance) or turn your emotions up (preoccupation).
If you’re rejected by your parents when you have emotions like sadness (e.g “suck it up”), you learn to suppress those feelings in order to be accepted. Turning feelings down like this is called “avoidant attachment” because avoiding your feelings helps you attach to your parents.
Sometimes turning your feelings down isn’t enough to have a smooth relationship with your parents. If you grew up with neglect and/or abuse, you might be guarded, withdrawn, self-sufficient, and anxious around people in addition to turning your feelings down.
We don’t view Avoidant Personality Disorder as “something wrong”. We view AVPD as a specific collection of changes a person made to adapt to their environment. This set of changes leads to the symptoms of AVPD.
In your original family environment, maybe those changes made sense and were helpful. That’s a good thing! It means you’re resilient and adaptable.
In a new environment, around new people who may not behave in the same way, those changes might not be helpful anymore. Even within your existing family, you may recognize some downsides to the way you cope that you’d like to change.
Luckily, humans don’t ever stop being adaptable. If you’re ready for change, check out our team in the section below and find the right therapist for you.Since grief is a normal experience it may be difficult to know when to seek treatment. Prolonged grief disorder is a newly proposed diagnosis and may provide you with some guidance as to whether it is time to seek therapy for your grief.
Attachment Based Therapy
Research shows that attachment strategy is a risk factor for PTSD. Attachment Based Therapy (ABT) helps you address these underlying risk factors.
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Cognitive Processing Therapy
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) is a form of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Your therapist will help you explore the way your trauma has impacted your thoughts and beliefs.
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Social Skills Training
Social Skills Training will help you feel more comfortable navigating social situations, like how to better recognize and respond to the emotions or social cues of others.
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Social Skills Training
Find 14 incredible guides for building and improving social skills as an adult.
Thought Record Worksheet
Work through nervousness and intrusive thoughts using our thought record worksheet.
Is Avoidant Personality Treatable?
Learn more about treatment for avoidant personality disorder and how to work through symptoms.