This video answers the question: What is the relationship between experiential avoidance and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD)? When we talk about obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, we're talking about a Cluster C personality disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. OCPD is different than obsessive-compulsive disorder OCD. We see a number of symptoms in the symptom criteria for OCPD including, a preoccupation with details, perfectionism, excessive devotion to work and productivity, overconscientiousness, an inability to throw out worn out or worthless items, reluctance to delegate tasks, a miserly spending style, and being rigid and stubborn. We also know that OCPD is a fairly common personality disorder. About 8% of population would qualify for a diagnosis of OCPD and it's thought to be the most prevalent personality in the general population. In clinical populations, it's thought to be the third most prevalent, so it's behind avoidant and borderline personality disorders. In terms of the prevalence, of course, it depends on which research studies you look at. There's not perfect agreement about prevalence, but either way we know that OCPD is fairly common and there's not a lot of research about this disorder. We know that with OCPD there is impaired functioning, but there's also some potential benefits with this disorder and this makes it a little bit unusual as compared to the other personality disorders. Even though we think the negative aspects of OCPD are worse than the positive aspects are good, we know there are some positive aspects particularly around work productivity. This shouldn't be surprising considering that's one of the symptom criteria with OCPD.
Experiential avoidance is an unwillingness to experience unpleasant thoughts, sensations, and emotions. These attempts to avoid unpleasant feelings that we see with experiential avoidance oftentimes result in an increase in symptom severity, duration, and frequency. This is exactly the opposite expectation that somebody would have when they try to avoid unpleasant feelings. With OCPD, the mechanism of avoidance is thought to be maladaptive attempts to control. There is a positive correlation between experiential avoidance and OCPD. We also see that higher experiential avoidance in individuals who have OCPD was associated with a lower quality of life.
Wheaton, M. G., & Pinto, A. (2017). The role of experiential avoidance in obsessive–compulsive personality disorder traits. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, And Treatment, 8(4), 383-388. doi:10.1037/per0000200
