On this page, you'll find a breakdown of three groups of proposed subtypes for AVPD. These subtypes are not officially recognized by the DSM or ICD, but individual avoidants may find them to be useful descriptors.

Millon's Subtypes

Published in Theodore Millon's book, Personality Disorders in Modern Life.

Conflicted Avoidant

  • Features of negativistic personality disorder
  • Simultaneous fear of both dependence and independence, expressed interpersonally in ways which may be considered passive-aggressive
  • May be seen by others as "petulant and sulking"
  • May lash out at others for failing to recognize their need for affection, while simultaneously feeling that their independence is being threatened by those who do offer nurturance
  • May (intentionally or unintentionally) misinterpret others' wishes/intentions toward them or obstruct others' kind actions toward them, because they constantly anticipate disappointment to the point that they may start seeking it out in places where it would not otherwise be present
  • Report feeling misunderstood, underappreciated, and demeaned by others
  • More erratic moods than the basic avoidant pattern
  • Act hostile under pressure, but may deny these resentments and appear generally content when stress is minimal
  • May desire some sort of revenge against those who they feel have crossed their boundaries or failed to meet their needs in some way
  • Hostile actions discourage others from getting close to them, keeping them safe from the harm they fear but also ensuring their unwanted isolation

Hypersensitive Avoidant

  • Features of paranoid personality disorder
  • Attribute their shortcomings to the maneuverings of others as well as to themselves
  • High-strung and irritable
  • Vigilant to signs of rejection and abuse
  • Excessively wary of the motivations of others
  • Intense and unstable moods, featuring prolonged periods of self-deprecation and unease
  • May express guilt and contrition, while feeling misunderstood, unappreciated, and demeaned by others
  • Alternatively, may find it difficult to contain their anger toward anyone who has been unsupportive, critical, or disapproving
  • In times of especially poor self-esteem, may come to believe that their flaws are the result of others' attempts to undermine them or make them inhibit themselves
  • Find it easier to believe that others are the cause of their perceived inadequacy than to believe that they could be naturally inadequate

Phobic Avoidant

  • Features of dependent personality disorder
  • Project their fears onto a "symbolic substitute" which resembles a traditional phobia
  • Use these substitutes as a way to make their sense of anxiety and dread feel attached to something that is tangible and concrete, generally with the goal of either making the fear feel more manageable or making it more understandale to others
  • Examples: developing a fear of the neighbor's dog because such a fear provides an excuse to avoid ever leaving the house and seeing other people, developing a fear of water because it provides a reason to not take a job as a lifeguard, etc
  • Seek to free themselves from their fears by fleeing these substitutes
  • May also use expressions of fear to elicit compassion from those who would otherwise reject them, which can backfire if others mock these expressions of fear instead of showing support

Self-Deserting Avoidant

  • Features of depressive personality disorder
  • Immerse themselves in fantasy to avoid the discomfort of trying to relate to others
  • Aware of their use of this tactic, and of the perceived inadequacies that motivate them to use it
  • Fantasy becomes less effective over time, looking less like daydreaming and more like ruminations about the misery of their lives as time goes on
  • Unable to tolerate being themselves, seeking to withdraw completely from conscious awareness
  • May neglect themselves psychologically and physically, possibly to the point of neglecting basic hygiene
  • May fall into despair and contemplate suicide, believing that abandoning life entirely is the only way to escape the pain of being themselves
  • May enter a state of emotional numbness, becoming completely disconnected from themselves
  • In particularly severe cases, may experience a splitting or fragmenting of their consciousness, causing schizotypal-like symptoms
  • Become outside spectators of their lives, watching their own mental decline as if it's happening to someone else

Kantor's Subtypes

Published in Martin Kantor's book, Distancing: Avoidant Personality Disorder.

Please keep in mind while reading these that Kantor is generally disliked by the AVPD community for the anti-AVPD stigma that his writing has perpetuated, and he should NOT be considered a true authority on our experiences.

Shy/Social-Phobic Avoidant

  • Use withdrawal to manage social anxiety
  • Come across as introverted, self-conscious, and lacking in self-confidence
  • Shy avoidants tend to be more isolated, and have more difficulty with forming relationships or actively participating in social interactions
  • Social-phobic avoidants tend to show their withdrawal more symbolically, showing withdrawal in specific situations where they are expected to perform (e.g. speaking in public) similarly to someone with social anxiety disoder

"Mingles" Avoidant

  • Appear to have good relationships on the surface
  • Find it easy to form new relationships, but difficult to keep them going
  • Have difficulty fully committing to a relationships
  • Anxious avoidants fear maintaining relationships because they are hyperaware of the possibility that these relationships will lead to criticism or rejection, and react to these events much more intensely than most
  • Ambivalent avoidants feel that "the grass is always greener on the other side" in relationships, constantly switching between feeling that people are too distant from them and that people are suffocatingly close
  • Masochistic avoidants seem to fear acceptance even more than they fear rejection, and subconsciously seek out relationships that are doomed to fail
  • Dissociative avoidants respond to closeness by detaching mentally from the relationship, no longer feeling like the relationship is really happening to them at all
  • Hypomanic avoidants jump from person to person without ever letting any one relationship develop because they fear that if they stay too long with one person, that person may eventually reject them and leave them without anyone to fill that void

"Seven Year Itch" Avoidant

  • Fear of familiarity
  • Can form full and satisfactory relationships, but only for a limited amount of time
  • May be able to commit to a relationship for a long time, but will eventually become restless and attempt to escape it

(Co)Dependent Avoidant

  • Put all of their energy into one close, all-encompassing relationship, which is often (but not always) unhealthily dependent
  • Use this one relationship as an excuse to avoid all other potential relationships, writing them off as unnecessary
  • May seem non-avoidant to outsiders because of this relationship

Alden & Capreol's Subtypes

Published in Lynn Alden and Martha Capreol's article, Avoidant personality disorder: Interpersonal problems as predictors of treatment response.

Cold Avoidant

  • Inability to express warm emotions toward others
  • Inability to develop relationships
  • Distrust of others
  • Those placed in this group by the researchers scored higher on Vindictiveness and Cold scales.

Exploitable Avoidant

  • Inability to express anger toward others
  • Inability to resist coercion from others
  • Face problems such as being taken advantage of by others and trying too hard to please others
  • Those placed in this group by the researchers scored higher on Exploitability, Overly-Nurturant, and Intrusiveness scales.