Jacob Vaughan, Avoidant Personality Disorder

Name: Jacob Vaughan

Age: 22

Disorder: Avoidant Personality Disorder

Description of disorder: A person characterized by a pervasive pattern of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, extreme sensitivity to negative evaluations, and avoidance of social interaction is considered to have an avoidant personality disorder. Those with avoidant personality disorders often consider themselves socially inept or personally unappealing and avoid social interaction for fear of being ridiculed, humiliated, rejected, or disliked. Some signs/symptoms of an avoidant personality disorder are hypersensitivity to rejection, self-imposed social isolation, extreme shyness or anxiety in social situations, severe low self-esteem, self-critical about all they do, and the general feeling of inferiority to others. Causes of an avoidant personality disorder are not clear, although they can stem from childhood bullying or emotional neglect.

Has been at LPH for: 2 weeks

Medicine: Xanax (for anxiety), undergoing group therapy sessions and cognitive behavioral therapy sessions

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Background: Jacob never understood why people picked on him. He was smart, good at sports, loved his family and the few friends he had, and never uttered a mean word to anyone. Regardless, school bullies still targeted him out. Jacob went through all of elementary and middle school without a word to his parents, never letting on that he had no friends and was forced to hide in the bathrooms during all passing periods or lunch, due to fear of what his "peers" would do. It was his freshman year of high school when Mrs. Vaughan finally caught on to what was happening with her son. Jacob had forgotton his lunch card at home, and knowing the school was strict with having what you needed, she decided to stop of on her way to work and give it to him. Upon arriving, as if fate couldn't have planned it any better, Mrs. Vaughan walked into the school that was surrounded by police officers. Moving to ask the office attendant what had happened, Mrs. Vaughan caught sight of her badly beaten son in the arms of an officer who was helping him to walk. After a hospital trip and a few heated arguments with the high school, Mrs. Vaughan took Jacob out of public schooling, quit her job, and began to homeschool him, no burden to her. After the incident, Jacob's mother began to slowly realize that her son wasn't the same. Sure, she knew it'd take some time to come to terms with what had happened and how mean people could really be, but it seemed as if Jacob's remorse took a whole new level. Whenever someone would compliment him, he had at least five negative comments about himself to retort with. If she asked him to go to the store or to run errands with her, he'd go out of wanting to be with his mother, but would cower in the car or stay at her side with his head down the entire time. On a few occasions, Mrs. Vaughan had asked her son what was going on and why he was so upset and gloomy all the time, to which he always responded, "I'm not." It wasn't until a few months after he turned 22 and a realization hit him that provoked him to go open up to his mom. He wasn't a teenager anymore, yet still living at home and with no job or social life, afraid of the world and it's people outside. After confiding in his mother, and deciding he wanted to get help, she drove him to LPH, where he's been ever since.

What you get to decide: Jacob's overall personality (keep his background in mind), his views on his school life/people he knew during those times, how the medicine and therapy sessions are helping him

Played by: Colton Haynes