Personality disorders are mental health disorders that negatively affect a person’s behaviors, thought patterns, and function. As a result, people diagnosed with these disorders experience challenges with managing relationships, connecting with others, and understanding various situations. Therefore, personality disorders can affect a person’s daily life. And, make it difficult to navigate not only relationships but any social interaction. Thus, making it hard to maintain jobs, handle relationships, and manage high marks during school. Fortunately, personality disorder treatment is successful in helping people living with these conditions. It allows them to get the help they need to live out lives of mental wellbeing.

Who Struggles with Personality Disorders?

Many people with personality disorders may not even know they’re living with a mental illness. This is because they’ve lived with their thought patterns and behaviors that come with these disorders for as long as they can remember. So, they seem normal to them and may even think everyone else’s thinking or behaviors are unnatural. Typically, these disorders are diagnosed in people who are younger or in early adulthood. But, they’re sometimes not diagnosed until people are older. However, as individuals age, it can be harder to determine whether or not people are living with the symptoms of these disorders.

Causes of personality disorders include genetics and environmental factors. So, they can be hereditary. This means they run in families and are the result of biological differences genetics can pass down. And, they can develop as the result of experiences a person has during childhood and environmental surroundings. In most cases, personality disorders are developed as the result of both genetic and environmental factors. Therefore, both are contributing factors to the development of these disorders.

Symptoms of the Various Types of Personality Disorders

Schizoid Personality Disorder: This type of personality disorder involves avoidance of social situations and relationships with others. Furthermore, those living with this type of disorder may experience differences in how they express their emotions.

Schizotypal Personality Disorder: The characteristics of this personality disorder include avoidance of romantic relationships, limited ranges of emotions, abnormal behavior and speech, and beliefs that they can “hear” or “interpret” messages or voices only intended for themselves.

Paranoid Personality Disorder: This personality disorder involves symptoms of mistrust in others. This mistrust is apparent even when the person affected with this disorder doesn’t have a reason not to trust another. Other symptoms of this disorder can include holding grudges and reacting angrily to the judgments of others. Plus, not being able to confide in others.

Borderline Personality Disorder: People diagnosed with this disorder have a hard time managing their relationships, mood, and impulsive behaviors. They also may experience a fear of being alone and experiencing suicidal thoughts or actions.

Antisocial Personality Disorder: Those diagnosed with this type of personality disorder may showcase symptoms of disregard for their and others’ health and wellbeing, compulsive lying, and engaging in risky behaviors.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder: People with this type of personality disorder are typically men and it involves symptoms of feeling superior to others, disregarding the feelings of others, and an unrealistic perception of self-entitlement.

Histrionic Personality Disorder: Otherwise known as ‘dramatic personality disorder’, this personality disorder involves symptoms of attention-seeking behavior, having strong but impracticable beliefs, and being easily manipulatable.

Dependent Personality Disorder: Those diagnosed with this personality disorder experience symptoms including feelings of anxiety, hopelessness, and trouble with making decisions. Often, they need the help of others to take care of them in order to survive.

Avoidant Personality Disorder: People diagnosed with avoidant personality disorder struggle with feelings of being inadequate and avoid serious relationships with other people as a result.

Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder: Individuals living with OCPD have symptoms of compulsive neatness, needing things to be perfect, and having obsessions with order.

Personality Disorder Treatment

Those struggling with the symptoms of personality disorders can get help through personality disorder treatment. At Yellowbrick, our outpatient approach allows people diagnosed with these conditions to get the help they need on an individualized basis.