Personality Disorder: Types, Diagnosis, and Treatment
What is a Personality Disorder?
Personality disorders are complex mental health conditions that affect multiple areas of a person's life on a daily basis, including behavior, thoughts, and feelings. They can also affect the way you understand and relate to other people, as well as your overall health and well-being.
There are many types of personality disorders, and they can range from being mild and relatively manageable to having a severe and long-lasting impact on a person's ability to function.
There are some specific types of personality disorders in the DSM-5-TR. Personality disorders are long-term patterns of behavior and internal experiences that differ significantly from what is expected.
They affect at least two of these areas:
Way of thinking about oneself and others.
Way of responding emotionally.
Way of relating to other people.
Way to control one's behavior
Types of Personality Disorders
Antisocial Personality Disorder: A pattern of disregard for or violation of the rights of others. A person with antisocial personality disorder may not conform to social norms, may repeatedly lie or deceive others, or may act impulsively.
Avoidant Personality Disorder: A pattern of extreme shyness, feelings of inadequacy, and extreme sensitivity to criticism. People with avoidant personality disorder may be unwilling to get involved with other people unless they are sure they like them, are worried about being criticized or rejected, or may see themselves as not good enough or socially inept.
Borderline Personality Disorder: A pattern of instability in personal relationships, intense emotions, poor self-image, and impulsivity. A person with borderline personality disorder may go to great lengths to avoid being abandoned, making repeated suicide attempts, displaying inappropriately intense anger, or having ongoing feelings of emptiness.
Dependent Personality Disorder: A pattern of needing to be cared for and clinging, submissive behavior. People with dependent personality disorder may have difficulty making daily decisions without the reassurance of others, or may feel uncomfortable or powerless when alone for fear that they will not be able to care for themselves.
Histrionic Personality Disorder: A pattern of excessive emotion and attention seeking. People with histrionic personality disorder may feel uncomfortable when they are not the center of attention, may use physical appearance to draw attention to themselves, or have exaggerated or rapidly changing emotions.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder: A pattern of a need for admiration and a lack of empathy for others. A person with narcissistic personality disorder may have a grandiose sense of self-importance, a sense of entitlement, take advantage of others, or lack empathy.
Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder: a pattern of preoccupation with order, perfection, and control. A person with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder may be too focused on details or schedules, may be overworked, leaving no time for leisure or friends, or may be inflexible in their morals and values.
Paranoid Personality Disorder: A pattern of being suspicious of others and seeing them as mean or spiteful. People with paranoid personality disorder often assume that people will harm or deceive them and do not trust or reach out to others.
Schizoid Personality Disorder: Being detached from social relationships and expressing little emotion. A person with schizoid personality disorder usually does not seek close relationships, chooses to be alone, and seems not to care about praise or criticism from others.
Schizotypal Personality Disorder: A pattern of feeling very uncomfortable in close relationships, having distorted thinking, and eccentric behavior. A person with schizotypal personality disorder may have bizarre beliefs or strange or peculiar behavior or speech, or may have excessive social anxiety.
What Are The Symptoms of Personality Disorders?
Each of the 10 types of personality disorders has its own specific signs and symptoms.
But in general, personality disorders involve problems with:
Identity and sense of self: People with a personality disorder generally lack a clear or stable image of themselves, and the way they see themselves often changes depending on the situation or the people they are with. Your self-esteem may be unrealistically high or low.
Relationships: People with a personality disorder struggle to form close, stable relationships with others because of their problematic beliefs and behaviors. They may lack empathy or respect for others, be emotionally distant, or overly in need of attention and care.
Another hallmark of personality disorders is that most people who have one often have little or no perception or awareness of how problematic their thoughts and behaviors are.
Treatment
There are no Psychiatric medication management that are specifically used to treat personality disorders. However, in some cases, medications such as antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications, or mood stabilizers may be helpful in treating some symptoms. More severe or long-lasting symptoms may require a team approach involving a primary care physician, psychiatrist, psychologist, social worker, and family members.
Certain types of psychotherapy have been shown to be effective in treating personality disorders. Ideally, during psychotherapy, a person can gain information and insight about their disorder, what contributes to symptoms, and be able to talk about thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Psychotherapy can help a person understand the effects that their behavior can have on others and learn to manage or cope with symptoms and reduce behaviors that cause problems with functioning and relationships. The type of treatment will depend on the specific personality disorder, how severe it is, and the individual's circumstances.
Commonly used types of psychotherapy include:
Psychoanalytic/psychodynamic/transference-focused therapy
Dialectical behavior therapy
Cognitive behavior therapy
Group therapy
Psychoeducation (teach the individual and family members about diagnosis, treatment and ways of coping)
In addition to actively participating in a treatment plan at a Talk therapy center, some self-care and coping strategies can be helpful for people with personality disorders.
Learn about the condition. Knowledge and understanding can help empower and motivate.
Stay active. Physical activity and exercise can help control many symptoms, such as depression, stress, and anxiety.
Avoid drugs and alcohol. Alcohol and illegal drugs can make symptoms worse or interact with medications.
Get routine medical care. Do not neglect check-ups or regular care from the family doctor.
Join a support group of other people with personality disorders.
Write in a journal to express your own emotions.
Try relaxation and stress management techniques like yoga and meditation.
Stay connected with family and friends; avoid being isolated.
Summary
Various types of therapy can benefit people with BPD, and some of the strongest scientific evidence supports the efficacy of DBT. Meanwhile, preliminary evidence suggests that MBT and ST may also help.
Therapy can lead to a long-term remission, in which BPD symptoms improve very significantly or completely. While achieving remission can take time and dedication, many find that therapy makes a significant difference to their symptoms in the meantime.
In general, a strong and trusting therapeutic relationship is more strongly associated with a positive outcome.