Best 5 Avoidant Personality Disorder Books

1. Distancing: Avoidant Personality Disorder

By Martin Kantor

Kantor focuses on a misunderstood but common condition that brings severe and pervasive anxiety about social contacts and relationships. He offers psychotherapists a specific method for helping avoidants overcome their fear of closeness and commitments, and offers a guide for avoidants themselves to use for developing lasting, intimate, anxiety-free relationships.

2. Avoidant Personality Disorder: The Ultimate Guide to Symptoms, Treatment, and Prevention

By Clayton Geoffreys

In Avoidant Personality Disorder: The Ultimate Guide to Symptoms, Treatment, and Prevention, you’ll learn about Avoidant Personality Disorder, and how it can impact a person’s life. This book covers a variety of topics regarding AvPD, including but not limited to feelings of low self esteem, self isolation, and discomfort in social situations.

Topics covered include cognitive skills therapy, psychological therapy, self-isolation, extreme sensitivity to criticisms, and self-deserting behaviors. 

3. The Essential Guide to Overcoming Avoidant Personality Disorder

By Martin Kantor

 This thorough and much-needed volume explores the development of AvPD and presents a holistic view of its causes from the psychoanalytic, cognitive-behavioral, and interpersonal perspectives.

It offers an extensive section on diagnostic criteria that will be useful to sufferers and therapists, and it discusses the various therapies for AvPD. Finally, and perhaps most critically, the book provides a section intended as a guide for psychiatrists―and a self-help guide for sufferers―including a day-by-day, one-step-at-a-time, monthly guide on how to overcome AvPD.

4. Hiding In The Light: Understanding Avoidant Personality Disorder

By Dr. Sandra Smith-Hanen, Fynn Cross

Hiding In The Light provides insights into the complicated Avoidant Personality Disorder (AVP) based on author Sandra Smith-Hanen’s 25 plus years as a practicing psychologist.

5. Overcoming Avoidance Workbook

By Daniel F. Gros PhD

With this guide, you’ll develop skills based in transdiagnostic behavior therapy (TBT), an evidence-based protocol designed to help you identify and overcome the avoidance and isolation issues associated with depression, anxiety, and PTSD. You’ll also learn how to safely and gradually implement therapeutic techniques that will result in reduced symptoms and improved confidence.