Is interpersonal engulfment a sign of a personality disorder?

People who start endless threads wanting to bitch about other people's bad behavior would be included in your signs of a personality disorder, I presume.

Probably, OP. I have purged such people from my life. I still work on occasion with one but fortunately it's in limited doses. I keep a distance.

As one retired psychiatric nurse once advised me about difficult people, "Speak to their adult and avoid them."

Gay men friends are clingy. As soon as they realize your friendliness is real and don't see them as a sex objects they're clingy friends.

[quote]interpersonal engulfment

Is that official diagnostic nomenclature?

Not everything is sign of a personality disorder. Some people just weren't raised right. A personal disclosure from someone you don't know that well can be very charming or problematic. Old white sexless single gay men are very uptight around normal people. A lot of gays shun people. They only want to share similar thoughts and memories from a safe distance. Everyone else disappoints them or intrudes upon them. Good luck OP.

I think they're called psychic vampires OP.

You can buy a jacket to protect yourself from those kinds.

What if someone thinks I do this to him? I didn't/don't mean to. But I think I could be perceived in this way. One of my friends thinks this is not the case, that the person I'm talking about enjoys my company. But I worry about how I am perceived.

R8, I feel for you . . . but this is not likely the place to get sympathetic advice.

Having said that, I understand what you mean. If someone could perceive you that way, take an honest assessment of yourself. If you need to change your actions, take steps to do so. And, of course, talk to the friend who might see you that way AFTER letting that friend have some time away from you.

That is a tough one, r8. I think it largely depends on context. For now, I would just trust your friend when he tells you you're not engulfing him.