Lived experience of avoidant personality disorder: How people diagnosed with avoidant personality disorder make sense of their everyday life and challenges

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to inquire into the subjective experience of avoidant personality disorder. The approach is qualitative and interpretative phenomenological, with an ongoing focus on researcher reflexivity. A co-researcher and members of a resource group contributed to all stages of the research process with their first-hand knowledge of the phenomenon in question. The findings are presented in three separate articles. The first article explores how the participants experienced and made sense of their everyday challenges and strategies. The second article explores their sense making and subjective experiences of the origin and development of their current everyday struggles. The third article enquires about how the participants made sense of their experiences with treatments. Together, the findings consist of three overarching themes: (1) struggling to be a person; (2) a story of becoming forlorn; and (3) searching for the courage to be. An interpersonal developmental understanding of personality and of self-organizing experiences, as well as the importance of intersubjective aspects of therapeutic relationships, are emphasized.