Personality Disorders

Personality disorders are pervasive chronic psychological disorders, which can greatly affect a person's life.  Having a personality disorder can negatively affect one's work, one's family, and one's social life.  Personality disorders exist on a continuum.  The symptoms can be mild to more severe in terms of how pervasive and to what extent a person exhibits the features of a particular personality disorder.  While most people can live normal lives, during times of increased stress or external pressures (work, family, a new relationship, etc.), symptoms of the personality disorder will gain strength and begin to seriously interfere with emotional and psychological functioning.

Those with a personality disorder often experience disturbances in self-image; an inability to have successful interpersonal relationships; and difficulty with impulse control.  These disturbances come together to create a pervasive pattern of behavior and inner experience that is quite different from the norms of the individual's culture and that often tend to be expressed in behaviors that appear more dramatic than what society considers usual.  Therefore, those with a personality disorder often experience conflicts with other people and vice-versa.

There are as many potential causes of personality disorders as there are people who suffer from them.  They may be caused by a combination of parental upbringing, one's personality and social development, as well as genetic and biological factors.  Research has not narrowed down the cause to any factor at this time.  We do know, however, that these disorders will most often manifest themselves during increased times of stress and interpersonal difficulties in one's life.  Therefore, treatment most often focuses on increasing one's coping mechanisms and interpersonal skills.

Excerpts from an Associated Press article (Monday, December 1, 2008):

"Almost one in five American adults has a personality disorder that interferes with everyday life, and even more abuse alcohol or drugs, researchers reported Monday, December 1, 2008 in the most extensive study of its kind.

The disorders include problems such as obsessive or compulsive tendencies and anti-social behavior that can sometimes lead to violence.  The study also found that fewer than 25 percent of college-aged Americans with mental problems get treatment.

Experts praised the study's scope — face-to-face interviews about numerous disorders with more than 5,000 people.  Personality disorders were the second most common problem behind drug or alcohol abuse as a single category. The disorders include obsessive, anti-social and paranoid behaviors that are not mere quirks but actually interfere with ordinary functioning.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, an estimated 1 in four U.S. adults suffers from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.  The study was released Monday in Archives of General Psychiatry.  It was based on interviews with 5,092 adults in 2001 and 2002.  In the study trained interviewers questioned participants about symptoms.  They used an assessment tool similar to criteria doctors use to diagnose mental illness.  Dr. Jerald Kay, a psychiatry professor at Wright State University and chairman of the American Psychiatric Association's college mental health committee, said the assessment tool is considered valid and more rigorous than self-reports of mental illness.  He was not involved in the study.

Personality disorders showed up in similar numbers among both students and non-students, including the most common one, obsessive compulsive personality disorder. About 8 percent of young adults in both groups had this illness, which can include an extreme preoccupation with details, rules, orderliness and perfectionism.

All good students have a touch of "obsessional" personality that helps them work hard to achieve. But that's different from an obsessional disorder that makes people inflexible and controlling and interferes with their lives, he explained.

Obsessive compulsive personality disorder differs from the better known OCD, or obsessive-compulsive disorder, which features repetitive actions such as hand-washing to avoid germs."

If you or someone you know is facing the challenge of coping with a personality disorder, call today to make an appointment for a free consultation and ask to speak with Kimberley Harris, Ray Robinson, Jennifer Reed, or Chris Berger.