Very close to the solution-but I need your help

The problem can be fixed by treating it as a phobia and generally on focusing on this particular thing. That means: not focusing on treating the consiquencies of the problem, because all of these are the very natural results of this phobia.

This was posted by LonelyStranger, Thu Mar 25, 2004 9:51 pm :

Treatment:
Avoidance reduction ís typically an action-oriented approach to
handling the causes, complications & consequences of APD. It borrows from the active techniques found ín other psychotherapies. For example, "total push", from behavior therapy, forces avoidants to face social interactions for longer periods of time; supportive therapy gives encouragement ("you can do it"), positive feedback ("you are good enough to succeed") & reassurance ("you can handle the anxiety"); family therapy tries to convince the smothering family to stop infantilizing the individual; & pharmacological therapy advises administering anti-depressant medication to help allleviate the avoidant's anxiety. Generally, avoidants are encouraged to "do" rather than contemplate, to engage themselves ín fearful situations as a means of overcoming their fear.

"handling the causes, complications & consequences of APD"= even if you manage to handle all of them it is 100% sure that if someone makes criticism or bad criticism to you you are going react in the same mad way.

"forces avoidants to face social interactions for longer periods of time"=

As I said in a previous post, avoidands tend to try to diminish the probability of criticism. If they cannot do it then they "avoid". By facing many social interactions you just train your self to recognise whether you do something that other people will criticise . It trains you to do things that you may afraid and don't do because you think that you may get criticised. After doing them you see that what you did is not actually something that other people will criticise and so you dont avoid doing it in the future. But this does not treat your problem which is the sensitivity to ctriticism. Your reactions to criticism are always going to be the same.


"supportive therapy gives encouragement ("you can do it"), positive feedback ("you are good enough to succeed") &
reassurance ("you can handle the anxiety")"=

All these are focusing on increasing your self-estimation. I can guarantee to all of you that if you achieve high and constant levels of self estimation you are not going to get in this site any more. Even if someone critise you it will not affect you so much. But this doesn't mean that you are going to be treated, but that just fear of criticm doesn't have any effect on you. However, it is almost impossible for someone to have always so high levels of self estimation.

"pharmacological therapy advises administering anti-depressant medication to help allleviate the avoidant's anxiety"=

I am almost sure that if someone with APD manages to dissapear his anxiety he is not going to avoid social situations
any more. Because this is what prevents you from doing things and is caused by the fear of criticism. And probably your self estimation is not going to be so low. But this means that: If someone criticise you, your fear will be as great as before. And second, that means that you will live your rest of your life with these pills.

"avoidants are encouraged to "do" rather than contemplate, to engage themselves ín fearful situations
as a means of overcoming their fear"= This is probably the most right approach here. But these situations should be
the ones that it is sure that you are going to get criticised. But I am not a psychologist.

So, I emphasise again that the problem can be fixed by treating it as a phobia to one paricular thing, which is critisicm. The treatments that focus on treating the consiquencies are just a waste of time, because all of these are very natural
given the fact that someone has this phobia.