Personality Disorders

PERSONALITY DISORDERS

Personality Disorder is a pattern of behavioral and internal experiences that varies from individual to individual based on their background and ways they perceive one’s self and others. Appropriateness of emotional responses, interpersonal functioning, and impulse control can be brought on by a personality disorder.

Paranoid Personality Disorder is when a person distrusts and suspects others motives and interprets them as malevolent. Criteria include suspecting that others are exploiting, harming or deceiving them; preoccupied with doubts of loyalty and trustworthiness of friends and acquaintances; reluctant to confide in others; persistently bears grudges; perceives attacks on their character or reputation that are not apparent to others; suspects spouse of infidelities.

Schizoid Personality Disorder is a detachment in personal and social relationships. Individuals with this disorder neither desire nor enjoy close relationships, including being part of a family; almost always chooses solitary activities; has little to no interest in having sexual relations; takes pleasure in few activities; lacks close friends; appears indifferent to praise or criticism and shown emotional coldness or detachment.

Schizotypal Personality Disorder is a pattern of social and personal deficits marked by discomfort with close relationships as well as distortion of the thought process or perceptual distortion and eccentric behavior. Schizotypal Personality Disorder traits include odd beliefs and magical thinking (e.g. superstitions, belief in clairvoyance, telepathy or “sixth sense”); unusual perceptual experiences, including bodily illusions; odd thinking and speech; suspicious or paranoid ideas, odd eccentric or peculiar behavior; lack of close friends and excessive social anxiety.

Antisocial Personality Disorder is the disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others. Personality traits include failure to conform to social norms with behaviors that are grounds for arrest; deceitfulness (e.g. lying); impulsive, fails to plan ahead; irritability and aggressiveness, reckless disregard for the safety of others; irresponsible and lack of remorse.

Borderline Personality Disorder is a pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships and self-image. Criteria include frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment; persistently unstable self-image or sense of self; impulsive in areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g. spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating); recurrent suicidal behavior, threats or gestures; chronic feelings of emptiness; inappropriate, intense anger or inability to control anger and stress related paranoid ideas.

Histrionic Personality Disorder is characterized as excessive emotional and attention-seeking behavior. Character traits include feeling uncomfortable in situations where he or she is not the center of attention; interaction with others is often characterized by inappropriate sexually seductive or provocative behavior; displays changing and shallow expressions of emotions; constantly uses physical appearance to draw attention to self; excessive impressionistic style of speech; show exaggerated expression of emotions, is easily influenced by others and considers relationships to be more intimate than they are.

Narcissictic Personality Disorder is a pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration and lack of empathy for others. These traits include preoccupied fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty or ideal love; a grand sense of self- importance; believes that he or she is special or unique; feels entitled; takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own needs; is unwilling to identify with the feelings or needs of others; is often envious of others and believes that others are envious of them and shows arrogant behaviors or attitudes.

Avoidant Personality Disorder is a pattern of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy and hypersensitivity to evaluations by others. Criteria include avoiding activities because of fear of being criticized, disapproved or rejected; is unwilling to get involved with people unless certain of being liked; shows restraint within intimate relationships because of fear of being shamed or ridiculed; is preoccupied with being criticized or rejected in social settings; views self as socially inept, personally unappealing or inferior to others and is reluctant to take any personal risks or to engage in any new activities because they may prove embarrassing.

Dependent Personality Disorder is the excessive need to be taken care of that leads to clinging behaviors and fears of separation. Personality traits include difficulty making everyday decisions without advice and reassurance of others; needs others to assume responsibility for most major areas of his or her life; has difficulty expressing disagreement with others because of fear or loss of support of others. Difficulty of doing things on his or her own; goes to excessive lengths to gain support from others even if that means doing something unpleasant; is uncomfortable when alone because of fears of not being able to take care of one’s self; urgently seeks another relationship when a close relationship ends and is constantly preoccupied with fears of being left to take care of him or herself.

Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder is a preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, and interpersonal control at the expense of flexibility, openness and efficiency. Character traits include being preoccupied with details, rules, lists, order, organization or schedules to the extent that the major point of the activity is lost; shows perfectionism that interferes with task completion (e.g. is unable to complete a project because of his or her own strict standards); is excessively devoted to work and productivity to the exclusion of leisure activities and friendships; is inflexible about matters of morality, ethics or values; is unable to throw out worn-out or worthless objects; is reluctant to delegate tasks or to work with others unless they submit to exactly his or her way of doing things; adopts a poor spending style toward both self and others, money is viewed as something to be hoarded for future catastrophes and shows rigidity and stubbornness.