Courtesy:Ms.Gulshera Valyani, Psychologist, Ahana Hospitals

Personality refers to characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling and behavior that make up who we are and how we feel about ourselves. Personality is relatively consistent over different life situations and therefore helps predict one’s behavior in a particular situation. Childhood plays a crucial role in the life of a person as a major part of one’s personality gets molded during childhood. By the time an individual reaches adulthood, his or her personality would have become more stable and rigid.

People with a Personality Disorder (PD) experience certain difficulties in the way they think, feel and behave. Personality disorders affect how an individual feels about oneself and about others and also affect how one relates to other people. Human beings are social beings with an innate need to belong. Relationships help satisfy our need to belong. Healthy relationships are vital for our well-being. People with personality disorder experience difficulty in initiating, establishing and maintaining relationships. Difficulties in coping with one’s own emotions and impulses could lead to strained relationships. As a result they might feel isolated. This is one reason why the chances of people with a personality disorder also experiencing depression is higher. This could also lead to self-harm and suicide as ways of coping with over whelming emotional isolation. Understanding the complexity and the impact of these disorders by the people around will enable them to be supportive and accepting of the person with a personality disorder. This in turn will enable them to be a part of the treatment plan thereby enhancing the effectiveness of the treatment of the disorder.