Dependent personality disorder is a pattern of behavior that occurs in early adulthood of both men and women and later with the establishment of important relationships. It best refers to an inflexible and maladaptive impairment trait of a person. The person displays an excessive and pervasive needy, passive and clinging behavior that completely deviates from the normality expectations of a person’s nature. It is a state where a person shows a lot of dependency on others, wanting to be taken care of all the time and is always out to impress them. Simply, this person cannot do alone. Thus, his/her greatest fear is being alone or being separated from another. The trait is identifiable in a person’s way of thinking, desire, control, interpersonal functioning and emotional expression all in different contexts, personal and social situations. The pattern interferes with an individual’s life as it impairs many of his/her important areas of living such as occupation, education, religion and social functioning (Psychology Today, 2008). Contrary to what many people would think, this disorder is not a result of any substance abuse, medical condition or a mental disorder. Instead, it is best attributed to both biological and developmental factors such as those of subjects of overprotective parenting (WebMD, 2014).
A number of personal characteristics can get attributed to dependent personality disorder. They include the person’s behavior of avoiding disagreeing with another. It is always in the fear of losing that person after disagreeing. One tends to act helpless all the time in avoidance of taking up adult responsibilities and prefers a friend making decisions, whether crucial or not, for him. It goes to the extent of needing another person to make decisions for him/her of what to wear or eat. When relationships come to an end, a person with dependent personality disorder is immediately devastated and helpless. The only solution is getting into another relationship immediately. In fear of losing others, a person with this pattern will be more than willing to put up with mistreatment and abuse from others if need be. They will always drop their need, even basic, and place those of their caregivers above. They are pessimistic, lacking self-esteem and confidence, and oversensitive to criticism. Due to this, they cannot take up tasks or start projects that they will always drop from the word go if taken. People with dependent personality disorder just cannot be alone (WebMD, 2014).
There has never been a laboratory test discovered to diagnose the condition in all the time this disorder has existed. Despite lack of a definite distinction, its prevalence is found to occur frequently in females (Long, 2014). People with dependent personality disorder will rarely seek help, but often develop depression and anxiety. That is when they opt to seek help. Psychotherapy is the known mode of treatment that works in helping the individual become independent, more active and develop healthy types of relationships (WebMD, 2014).With treatment, studies have shown improvements only with long-term therapy. Therapies used and known to yield some positive fruits are cognition therapy and interpersonal therapy. Any medication used, only reduces the anxiety and depression, but does nothing to healing dependent personality disorder. Research has attributed genetic, environmental, and prenatal factors to playing important roles in the development of dependent personality disorder. Recently, research has proved that low parental affection and harsh parenting increase the risk of future development of a personality disorder in a child (Long, 2014).
Behavior
In the diagnosis of dependent personality disorder, levels of intense and maladaptive dependency are evident in one’s behavior. The disorder serves in interfering with an individual’s overall behavior serving as conclusive symptoms. The behavior of a dependency person gets expressed as needy, clingy, and insecure— one being unable to make the smallest decisions without extravagant advice and reassurance from others. Their behavior, however, tends to differ where others are less easy to recognize the many different ways of expressing the dependency as obvious or subtle, maladaptive or adaptive. The behavior of a person with a dependent personality disorder takes a shift from the normal expected to a completely unexpected trend. One is suddenly compliant and eager to please others in all contexts (Bornstein, 2007).
In psychological diagnosis of this disorder, behavior of an individual serves as an essential feature. A pervasive and excessive urge and need to be taken care of is evident. It unapologetically accrues to a clinging and submissive behavior. The greatest fear left is always separation from people in any relationship (Bornstein, 2007).
Dependent personality disorder revolves around a number of behavioral components such as cognition, emotion and motivation. A person perceives him/her as powerless, incompetent, and unimpressive in the midst of others who remain comparatively powerful and competent (Counseling Directory, 2014). The belief bears the huge desire to have these people by his side as his protectors and caregivers. Their presence in turn serves a motivational purpose in his/her well-being, thus, never wants to let them go instead tend to maintain close ties with them. Breaking of these ties, abandonment and rejection are his greatest emotional fear. The only way to avoid these remains developing a behavioral pattern of facilitating relationships (Bornstein, 2007).
These people develop a number of strategies that work for them in their wellbeing. Each strategy aims at achieving a certain goal, and this is only complimented by acquiring a certain behavior. Each behavior acquired and adopted serves in favor of a specific goal. Supplication is one of the strategies that demand for a person to submit to others and portray him/herself as lowly. The behavior aims at making the individual look for help from others and appears defenseless (National Library of Medicine, 2014). In the midst of other people, the self-promotion strategy works best in making known the individual’s personal worth. Apart from just making it known, it aims at hammering his/her worth into other people. It gets complemented by a behavior of the individual claiming worth and prowess in a certain field. It is evidently an exaggeration of small and minor performances in the past. Other strategic behaviors may include frequent and exaggerated displays of anger, offering unlimited uncalled for favors, providing emphasized voluntary help with emphasis of all being part of the sacrifice (Bornstein, 2007).
Social Psychology
On the onset of a dependent personality disorder, arises a farfetched interpersonal style in the subject’s social psychology. It is more of a behavioral complement in a not so admirable manner. High levels of dependency mean inability to initiate and sustain close interpersonal relationships (Psych Central, 2014). Evidence of a farfetched social functioning gets seen in a person with dependent personality disorder’s intensity of social networking, loneliness and the trend in his/her social behavior. Loneliness is the subject feeling a decrease in the intensity of social networking. Social networking involves establishment of social relations (Overholser, 1996). A personality disorder drifts the interests of the subject from those of others. Loneliness is, thus, the definite result of lack of people sharing a similar interest. Depression, anxiety, and loneliness are a measure of the negative and disruptive interpersonal behaviors in the social functioning of a person with dependent personality disorder (Overholser, 1996).
References
Bornstein, R. F. (2007, January). Dependent personality disorder: Effective time-limited therapy. Current Psychiatry, 6(1). Retrieved from http://www.currentpsychiatry.com/home/article/dependent-personality-disorder-effective-time-limited-therapy/d4e7482c32966894470b8b4806dfda6b.html
Counseling Directory. (2014). Dependent Personality Disorder. Retrieved from http://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/dependent.html
Long, P. W. (2014). Dependent Personality Disorder. Internet Mental Health. Retrieved from http://www.mentalhealth.com/home/dx/dependentpersonality.html
National Library of Medicine. (2014, November 7). Dependent Personality Disorder. Retrieved from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000941.htm
Overholser, J. C. (1996). The dependent personality and interpersonal problems. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 184(1), 8-16. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8551295?report=abstract
Psych Central. (2014). Dependent Personality Disorder Symptoms. Psych Central. Retrieved from http://psychcentral.com/disorders/dependent-personality-disorder-symptoms/
Psychology Today. (2008, July 21). Dependent Personality Disorder. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/conditions/dependent-personality-disorder
WebMD. (2014, February 8). Dependent Personality Disorder. Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/anxiety-panic/guide/dependent-personality-disorder
