Dependent Personality Disorder

What is a characteristic of individuals with dependent personality disorder regarding caring?

They are caring to a fault.

How do individuals with dependent personality disorder prioritize others' well-being?

They allow others' well-being to come first no matter the cost to themselves or their identity.

What is a common behavior of individuals with dependent personality disorder in relationships?

They are ever helping and giving.

What commitment do individuals with dependent personality disorder often have?

They are committed to their personal relationships, especially to their spouse and the institution of marriage.

Live their lives

through and for others

What role do they assume in relationships

a more passive role

What do they prefer in relationships

harmony

Have many characteristics that are prized within our culture

- Being happy when loved ones are happy
- Making sacrifices for the good of others
• Volunteering to perform many selfless act

What are these people like on the surface

warm and affectionate

What are these people like underneath the surface

see themselves as helpless and fear doing anything on their own

What do these people seek

competent instrumental surrogates who reward submission by facing down the problems of the world for both of them

Many are incapable of making

routine decisions without first seeking advice

Put their lives in the control of others. This clinginess

suffocates their partners and puts them at risk for abandonment

What fuels many behaviors related to relationships?

Fear/risk of abandonment

What behavior do individuals often exhibit in response to fear of abandonment?

They often submit quickly to their partners' wishes.

How do individuals often try to prevent abandonment in relationships?

They often become so pleasing that no one would possibly want to leave them.

What happens when relationships do dissolve

their self-esteem becomes devastated

Deprived of support or attachment, they

• Withdraw into themselves
• Become increasingly tense and despondent

The devoted style

Caring and solicitous, putting the welfare of others
first

The agreeing style

Built around cooperativeness, consideration, and amiability

These variants have a capacity for

healthy and pathological traits

Healthy and adaptive traits

- Capable of genuine empathy
- Tremendous capacity for unconditional love
- The most trusting of people
• Modest, uncritical, gentle demeanor communicates
unquestioned acceptance
- Easy to please and demanding of little
- Charitable in giving of themselves
- Put a positive light on all life events and stress the
virtues and good they find in others

What can healthy and adaptive traits quickly turn into?

Pathological traits

How do individuals with enmeshed identities tend to view their own identity?

They fuse their identity with that of others.

What emotional response do individuals with enmeshed identities experience when separated from loved ones?

Great anxiety

What do individuals with enmeshed identities often feel when they are alone?

They hate being alone.

What feelings do individuals often experience when a relationship ends?

Dominated, used, depleted, and desperate.

What is a consequence of blurred boundaries for individuals in enmeshed relationships?

Loss of relationship is tantamount to loss of self.

There is a difference between those with

the dependent personality disorder and the dependent personality style

Those with the disorder are

extremely dependent on others to function

Those with the style

can function on their own but still enjoy the support and advice of others