DEPENDENT PERSONALITY DISORDER

Symptoms

Dependent personality disorder usually affects people with a specific character structure. Typical characteristics of such people include: low self-esteem, dependency, submissiveness, shyness, and seeing themselves as helpless and incompetent, lacking strength and skills. Dependent personality disorder also manifests in placing excessive importance on interpersonal relationships and wanting to maintain them, often at any cost. This also includes giving up one’s own wishes and needs if they would conflict with the needs of others. In extreme cases, the affected person may tolerate humiliating treatment and even physical violence from those around them. Dependent people are so deeply driven by a fear of being abandoned that they approve almost every decision made by the person they depend on. Even when they feel disagreement, they are unable to express it, and in some situations they may even act against their own interests.

Causes

Dependent personality can be influenced by various factors, ranging from biological to experiential determinants. With regard to biological factors, a dependent personality may simply be determined by the temperament a person is born with. However, this is often not due to genes alone. Psychiatrists believe that the cause of this disorder is often a specific style of upbringing. A child’s dependent personality is usually the result of parents who used an authoritarian or overly protective parenting model. Parents who take care of their children at every step and do not allow them to make independent decisions about themselves in trivial matters, such as choosing toys or the color of their socks, do not help shape their individuality and do not allow them to develop natural curiosity. A child who has not learned to make their own choices may also struggle with this in adult life and may remain dependent on others in this regard.

Diagnosis

As for the criteria psychiatrists use to base their diagnosis of this type of personality, it is a personality disorder characterized by:

• Difficulty making everyday decisions without constant advice and reassurance from others,
• A need for others to take responsibility for the most important areas of one’s life,
• Difficulty expressing disagreement with others for fear of losing support or approval,
• Difficulty starting projects or doing things independently, due to a lack of confidence in one’s own judgment or abilities rather than a lack of motivation or energy,
• Going too far to obtain psychological support from others, leading to making personal sacrifices and doing unpleasant things,
• Feeling uncomfortable or helpless when alone, due to an excessive fear of being unable to care for oneself,
• Urgently seeking new relationships as sources of care and support when close relationships end,
• An unrealistic preoccupation with the fear of being left to fend for oneself.

Treatment

The primary treatment method is psychotherapy. The goals should be determined individually with the therapist, although they generally relate to strengthening independence and self-confidence. Psychotropic medication may be used for anxiety or depressive symptoms, but treatment should be carried out in close consultation with a doctor because of the possibility of psychological or physical dependence on drugs and their misuse.