Personality disorders are conditions of people’s basic character – so there is no ‘normal functioning’ to return to. The disordered personality become normal way of functioning, and appropriate treatment means learning entirely new ways of living.
SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF PERSONALITY DISORDERS:
The thoughts, feelings and behaviors that characterize personality disorders are:
Inflexible – i.e. they are rigid and are resistant to change.
Maladaptive – i.e. they are unhealthy ways of relating with others.
People with personality disorders usually don’t realize they have a problem. They think or experience themselves as normal and often feel that the people they interact with are the ones with the problems.
TYPES OF PERSONALITY DISORDERS:
People with odd and strange behavior
Paranoid – suspicious, distrustful, may be dangerous.
Schizoid – emotionally and interpersonally cut off, unresponsive or insensitive to others, otherwise called a ‘loner’.
People who dramatize
Histrionic – dramatic, wants attention, but emotionally shallow/superficial.
Narcissistic – inflated sense of self-importance, perfectionist.
Antisocial – behaviors that disregard laws, norms and rights of others.
Borderline –difficulty in building and / or maintaining relationships, impulsive, sense of emptiness and instability in thoughts, feelings and behavior.
Avoidant –rejection and abandonment, fears negative evaluation,
Dependent –dependent on others for self-esteem,submissive, fears abandonment.
The disorders within each type of personality may share some common behavior, they may also have characters of other personality types.
COURSE OF PERSONALITY DISORDER:
Personality disorder might be longstanding – i.e. begin at a relatively early age or chronic – i.e. continue over time or pervasive – i.e. occur across most contexts.
