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It has been proven that individuals with passive-aggressive personality disorder are ambivalent within their relationships. They are sometimes very hard to understand because they are constantly faced with a dilemma — a choice between expressing hostile defiance toward people they see and attempting to mollify these people by asking forgiveness. That’s why they are sometimes very difficult to handle.
These individuals are noted for the stormy nature of their interpersonal relationships and they are resentfully quarrelsome and irritable. They often feel like a victim. People in relationships with them are just waiting for the next struggle and round of volatility and carping criticism. In most cases, they engage in grumbling, moody complaints, and sour pessimism. These socially maladaptive behaviors result in inevitable interpersonal conflict and frustration. These individuals can control others by forcing them into an uncomfortable anticipatory stance. Passive-aggressive individuals are able to trap people into situations wherein whatever they do is wrong. [5]
Long-Term Effects of Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder
A person with a passive-aggressive personality disorder will most probably have significant problems at work and in relationships with others. The person's behavior makes him or her difficult to deal with.
Diagnosis of Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder
The criteria for passive-aggressive personality disorder (or negativistic personality disorder, as it is now called) as proposed by the Personality Disorders Work Group for the DSM-5 includes:
- Passive resistance to fulfilling social and occupational tasks through procrastination and inefficiency
- Complaints of being misunderstood, unappreciated, and victimized by others
- Sullenness, irritability, and argumentativeness in response to expectations
- Angry and pessimistic attitudes toward a variety of events
- Unreasonable criticism and scorn toward those in authority
- Envy and resentment toward those who are more fortunate
- Self-definition as luckless in life and an inclination to whine and grumble about being jinxed
- Alternating behavior between a hostile assertion of personal autonomy and dependent contrition