Avoidant Personality Disorder as a Cause for Failure to Launch Syndrome

Avoidant personality disorder (APD) is classified by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as showing obvious avoidance of relationships and interactions with other people due to an extreme fear of being rejected. It is often accompanied by feelings of inferiority, low self-esteem, and feeling like they cannot trust others, per the Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately 5.2 percent of Americans 18 and older have been diagnosed with a form of APD.

The symptoms of this disorder are sometimes hard to recognize in young adults, and they may not peak until those afflicted are in their 20s or 30s, per PsychCentral. Likewise, some cases do develop early enough for childhood and adolescent treatment, often showing better long-term results.

Symptoms of Avoidant Personality Disorder

If the following signs of APD raise any red flags for you, it is highly important that you seek the help of a medical professional:

• You avoid work-related activities.
• You try to stay away from other people if you aren’t sure those people like you.
• You maintain distance in intimate relationships.
• You are paranoid about social rejection and criticism.
• You limit yourself in social situations due to feeling like you don’t measure up.
• You see yourself as being less than others on many levels.
• You are afraid to try new things or take risks for fear of embarrassment.

APD Meets Failure to Launch Syndrome

As you can see from the symptoms listed above, avoidant personality disorder comes with many side effects that may cause someone to fall into the category of failure to launch syndrome (FLS). It is important to understand that having one of these disorders does not automatically imply that the other is present too. A thorough evaluation is best in an effort to get to the root causes of why you or your adult child isn’t thriving in life.

In many cases where the two conditions are overlapping, successfully treating the avoidant personality disorder may eliminate the failure to launch syndrome symptoms altogether. The end goal is to produce a healthy and ambitious adult who wants to engage with others, seek employment, and be a productive member of society.

The anxiety that sufferers of avoidant personality disorder feel can severely impact their abilities to find and maintain employment. Likewise, the tension they feel while at work and having to interact with other employees adds fuel to the fire, making them not want to go back to work the next day. This vicious cycle is nothing new to the APD patient.

Someone who is only suffering from failure to launch syndrome might not enjoy working for a variety of reasons, from not liking their job to feeling underpaid. For someone with APD, there is an actual fear present regarding what could go wrong at work each day and what others think or say about the individual. Per Internet Mental Health, APD is a chronic, generalized type of social anxiety disorder. A study published in International Clinical Psychopharmacology attests that people with social anxiety disorders are three times more likely than the general population to be unemployed. According to the Mayo Clinic, those with a genetic history of mental illness or personality disorders, childhood abuse or neglect, and those who aren’t highly educated are at an increased risk for developing APD.

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At the Optimum Performance Institute, our treatment approach centers on the individualized needs of young adults; there is no one-size-fits-all treatment protocol here. Our inpatient and outpatient programs deliver top-notch results that you are deserving of. Reach out to us for reassurance that APD and FLS do not have to control your life.