Dependent
People who have dependent personality disorder feel doubtful about having interactions and relationships with other people. The dependent personality disorder has characteristics of excessive longing for affection from significant persons. This intense need for affection may lead to denial of personal thoughts, ideas and feelings for fear of being rejected or displeasing others. They often refuse to make decisions by themselves and instead, prefer to wait for others to make the first move in an effort to please them. For people affected with this disorder, their lives revolve around the relationships with others. They would rather be abused and be exploited than be isolated and left alone.
Based on clinical findings, more women are diagnosed with dependent personality disorder. One of the major symptoms attributed to this disorder is the numerous and recurring periods of depression and chronic anxiety. According to many respected psychiatrists, this disorder can be genetic. However, there is more evidence supporting the argument that this disorder is largely caused by the family environment. Children who in their early stages of life have experienced separation from parents or have been conditioned to be dependent to others (suffered from illness, spoiling from parents) have higher tendencies to develop this disorder.
Psychoanalytic psychologists attribute the disorder to fixation or the failure of gratifying one’s needs at a certain stage. For this disorder, the fixation is seen to have taken place during the oral stage. At this stage, receiving affection and attention from others, particularly parents, is considered highly significant. For people with this disorder, they may have suffered from deprivation of nurturance or they may have been conditioned to be dependent in order to receive affection. Some of them may have had overprotective parents and because of their parents’ treatment towards them, they become more dependent. These people also tend to become more dependent when threatened by feelings of inadequacy or self-doubt and aggression or abuses by others.