Personality Disorders
What's a Personality Disorder?
Differences in personality style add to the spice of life. Some people
are easy going whereas others are controlling and demanding. Some people
are good at telling jokes, others do not like to be the center of
attention but enjoy laughing at others telling jokes. Having a bad temper.
Being stuck up. Having a good sense of humor. Generous. Cheap.
Perfectionistic. Careless. Reserved. Fun-loving. These are all
descriptions of personality traits. When personality traits become
extreme, when they are rigid and inflexible thereby making it difficult to
deal with people and handle life's problems, then a person may have a
personality disorder.
What Is Personality?
Personality refers to an individual's pattern of behavior and traits
that are long-standing and present since adolescence or early adulthood.
Some aspects of personality include:
- the way people tend to think about
themselves (e.g., self-confident or lacking confidence),
- how they relate
to people (e.g., shy vs. friendly),
- how they interpret and deal with
events in the environment (e.g., paranoid people believe that others are
out to get them and may try to attack first before being attacked), and
-
how they react emotionally to all of this.
It is not easy to define a
"healthy personality," but in general it allows one to cope with
the normal stress of life, and develop and maintain satisfying friendships
and intimate relationships. Of course everyone has a bad day and behaves
in an uncharacteristic way at times. However, when long-standing patterns
of thinking, behaving, and emotional response are rigid, inflexible, and
cause significant distress or impairment in functioning then a personality
disorder is diagnosed. Someone may be described as obnoxious,
self-centered, antisocial, or controlling. These are the types of
qualities that make it difficult for them to get along with people, as
well as causing problems in other areas of their life.
People usually do not seek treatment for personality problems. Rather,
people come for treatment of depression, anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia,
etc. A personality disorder makes one vulnerable to experiencing the mood
and anxiety disorders that cause one to get help, but it is unlikely to be
the chief complaint or presenting problem.
Patients do not come to the
office and say "I'm here because I have a very dependent personality.
I can't make decisions for myself and I am in constant fear that my
husband might leave me and I will have to take care of myself."
Rather, individuals with personality disorders usually come for the
treatment of depression, anxiety and relationship problems.
The manual used to diagnose psychiatric disorders, DSM-IV, describes 10
different personality disorders.
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