The types of attachment found to be most characteristic of BPD subjects are unresolved, preoccupied, and fearful. In each of these attachment types, individuals demonstrate a longing for intimacy and—at the same time—concern about dependency and rejection.
Avoidant attachment has been less consistently associated with personality disorders generally (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007), and is not considered a primary risk factor for BPD. Research has also established a relationship between attachment insecurity and other personality disorders.
Insecure attachment and borderline personality disorder (BPD) are defined by similar affective and interpersonal processes. Individuals diagnosed with BPD, however, represent only a subset of those described as insecurely attached, suggesting that attachment may hold broader relevance for socio-affective functioning.
Objectives: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is portrayed by unstable relationships, fears of abandonment and heightened sensitivity to social rejection. Research has shown that these characteristics may lead to inappropriate social behavior including altered approach-avoidance behavior.
Several researchers point to disorganized attachment as a core feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD).
Thus, BPD features seem to be highly associated with attachment anxiety, and may only be associated with attachment avoidance when it co-occurs with high attachment anxiety.
Avoidant personality disorder is a cluster C personality disorder. Around 1.5 to 2.5% of people could be living with avoidant personality disorder.
Stanlenheim and Von Knorring [7] suggested that borderline personality disorder was even closer to psychopathy than antisocial personality disorder, since APD is mainly limited to behavioral alterations, whereas BPD presents affective and interpersonal deficits in the same line as psychopathy.
AVPD is often comorbid with depression and substance abuse, and is likely to be associated with increased odds of suicidal ideation and attempts,2,6,9 explaining, perhaps in part, why AVPD may be a significant predictor of chronic depression.
The impulsive nature, and the association to childhood trauma, dissociation, and frontolimbic abnormalities support the continued protection of borderline personality disorder under the insanity defense.
Narcissists have insecure attachment styles that are either avoidant or anxious, or some combination. People with insecure attachment styles feel a basic insecurity stemming from relationships with early caregivers.
Ambivalent or anxious-preoccupied attachment style
As the labels suggest, people with this attachment style are often anxious and uncertain, lacking in self-esteem. They crave emotional intimacy but worry that others don't want to be with them.
Children who have attachment issues can develop two possible types of disorders: Reactive Attachment Disorder and Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder. Children with RAD are less likely to interact with other people because of negative experiences with adults in their early years.
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) and avoidant personality disorder (AvPD) are characterized by hyper-reactivity to negatively-perceived interpersonal cues, yet they differ in degree of affective instability.
People affected with BPD usually have been exposed to trauma, either in early childhood or via their intimate relationships or both. For some people affected with BPD, fears of being left out, left behind, rejected, or abandoned are present in almost every relationship.
Avoidants are not all narcissists but they do have an ability to detach emotionally from the relationship which triggers an “anxious” person's attachment anxiety.
Some of the most common comorbidities that occur alongside BPD are depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. 2 A person who has both BPD and depression would be referred to as having 'comorbid depression and BPD.
For example, a person with borderline personality disorder also may be more likely to experience symptoms of major depression, PTSD, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, or eating disorders.
Borderline personality disorder typically coexists with depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. Symptoms of these conditions may lead the clinician to miss the diagnosis of personality disorder entirely.
Objective: Borderline personality disorder is a disabling and dramatic psychiatric condition. To date, its pathophysiology remains unclear. Scientific evidence seems to have found underlying, nonfocal, central nervous system dysfunction in borderline personality disorder.
Only remorse leads to a real apology and change. One of the hallmarks of people with Borderline Personality Disorder or Narcissistic Personality Disorder (BP/NP) is that they often do not feel truly sorry. Even though a BP/NP may say he or she is sorry, there is often something lacking.
They may get severely depressed or lash out if they know you are breaking up with them. Someone with Borderline Personality Disorder may also engage in self-harm and other destructive behaviors.
Avoidant personality disorder (AvPD) is a Cluster C personality disorder characterized by excessive social anxiety and inhibition, fear of intimacy (despite an intense desire for it), severe feelings of inadequacy and inferiority, and an overreliance on avoidance of feared stimuli (e.g. self-imposed social isolation) ...
People diagnosed with Avoidant Personality Disorder report high rates of childhood physical and emotional abuse, which can disrupt healthy psychological development and impair your ability to form healthy, strong attachments while simultaneously causing you to internalize criticism and shaming.
Avoidant attachment can prevent healthy, fulfilling relationships between individuals and their partners, family, and friends. You can make the transition from avoidant to secure attachment styles through therapy.