Introduction to Personality Disorders
It's not easy to pin down exactly what we mean by the word ‘personality’. It seems obvious, but it is hard to put into words. Part of the reason is that many of the words we use to describe people have wide meanings – and these meanings often overlap.
These words can cover more than one area of experience. ‘Anxiety’ describes the feeling of worrying, ‘nervousness’ describes the behaviour that others might notice if you feel like this. ‘Shyness’ describes the feeling of awkwardness with other people, but also the behaviour of being rather quiet in company.
It is also difficult because the way we appear to other people can be very different in different situations. If you only know someone from work, you may see quite a different side to them if you meet socially.
However, in mental health, the word ‘personality’ refers to the collection of characteristics or traits that makes each of us an individual.
These include the ways that we:
* think
* feel
* behave
By our late teens, or early 20s, most of us have developed our own personality with our own distinctive ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. It remains pretty much the same for the rest of our life. Usually, our personality allows us to get on reasonably well, if not perfectly, with other people.
Personality disorder
However, for some of us, this doesn't happen. For whatever reason, parts of our personality develop in a way that makes it difficult for us to live with ourselves and/or other people. It can be difficult to learn from experience and to change those traits - the unhelpful ways of thinking, feeling and behaving - that cause the problems. Unlike the changes in personality that can be caused by traumatic events, or an injury to the brain, these traits will usually have been noticeable from childhood or early teens.
You may find it difficult to:
* make or keep relationships
* get on with people at work
* get on with friends and family
* keep out of trouble
* control your feelings or behaviour
If, as a result, you:
* are unhappy or distressed
and/or
* find that you often upset or harm other people
then you may have a personality disorder. Having a personality disorder makes life difficult, so other mental health problems (such as depression, or drug and alcohol problems) are also common.
Talking about personality disorders
There are different ways to describe mental disorders, and to put them into categories. The difficulty in describing any personality clearly, makes this more controversial with personality problems than with mental illnesses, such as depression or schizophrenia. Indeed, many people feel that it is unhelpful to 'label' personality difficulties in this way. However, although we are all individuals, certain patterns of personality problems do seem to be shared by fairly large numbers of people. By identifying these patterns, we can then develop ways of helping, and treatments that can be of use to many people, not just an individual.
Personality disorder – a suitable case for treatment?
There is good evidence that people with the diagnosis of personality disorder have not received the attention they should have from mental health services. These services have focused mainly on mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression. There has been some uncertainty about whether they have anything useful to offer people with personality disorders. Research has made it clear that mental health services can, and should, help people with personality disorders.
It's not easy to pin down exactly what we mean by the word ‘personality’. It seems obvious, but it is hard to put into words. Part of the reason is that many of the words we use to describe people have wide meanings – and these meanings often overlap.
These words can cover more than one area of experience. ‘Anxiety’ describes the feeling of worrying, ‘nervousness’ describes the behaviour that others might notice if you feel like this. ‘Shyness’ describes the feeling of awkwardness with other people, but also the behaviour of being rather quiet in company.
It is also difficult because the way we appear to other people can be very different in different situations. If you only know someone from work, you may see quite a different side to them if you meet socially.
However, in mental health, the word ‘personality’ refers to the collection of characteristics or traits that makes each of us an individual.
These include the ways that we:
* think
* feel
* behave
By our late teens, or early 20s, most of us have developed our own personality with our own distinctive ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. It remains pretty much the same for the rest of our life. Usually, our personality allows us to get on reasonably well, if not perfectly, with other people.
Personality disorder
However, for some of us, this doesn't happen. For whatever reason, parts of our personality develop in a way that makes it difficult for us to live with ourselves and/or other people. It can be difficult to learn from experience and to change those traits - the unhelpful ways of thinking, feeling and behaving - that cause the problems. Unlike the changes in personality that can be caused by traumatic events, or an injury to the brain, these traits will usually have been noticeable from childhood or early teens.
You may find it difficult to:
* make or keep relationships
* get on with people at work
* get on with friends and family
* keep out of trouble
* control your feelings or behaviour
If, as a result, you:
* are unhappy or distressed
and/or
* find that you often upset or harm other people
then you may have a personality disorder. Having a personality disorder makes life difficult, so other mental health problems (such as depression, or drug and alcohol problems) are also common.
Talking about personality disorders
There are different ways to describe mental disorders, and to put them into categories. The difficulty in describing any personality clearly, makes this more controversial with personality problems than with mental illnesses, such as depression or schizophrenia. Indeed, many people feel that it is unhelpful to 'label' personality difficulties in this way. However, although we are all individuals, certain patterns of personality problems do seem to be shared by fairly large numbers of people. By identifying these patterns, we can then develop ways of helping, and treatments that can be of use to many people, not just an individual.
Personality disorder – a suitable case for treatment?
There is good evidence that people with the diagnosis of personality disorder have not received the attention they should have from mental health services. These services have focused mainly on mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression. There has been some uncertainty about whether they have anything useful to offer people with personality disorders. Research has made it clear that mental health services can, and should, help people with personality disorders.
