What is Personality Disorder?
Personality disorders are a class of mental disorders that are characterized by unpredictable, inflexible, and extreme patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. These disorders frequently occur along with other mental disorders such as depressive disorders, substance abuse disorders, and anxiety disorders. People with personality disorders may have difficulties in managing emotions and behavior and dealing with personal relationships. They are not aware that they have mental health and believe that their way of thinking and behaving is completely normal. Personality disorders severely affect patients' social, educational, and family activities.
Types of Personality Disorders
There are many different types of personality disorders. They are divided into 3 main clusters based on similar characteristics and symptoms.
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Cluster A (Eccentric personality disorders)
People with cluster A disorders often exhibit odd, eccentric thinking or behavior. These disorders include paranoid personality disorder, schizoid personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder.
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Cluster B (Dramatic personality disorders)
People with Cluster B disorders often have dramatic, unstable emotions or unpredictable thinking or behavior. These disorders include antisocial personality disorder, histrionic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, and narcissistic personality disorder.
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Cluster C (Anxious personality disorders)
People with Cluster C disorders often have anxious, fearful thinking or behavior. These disorders include avoidant personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, and dependent personality disorder.
Causes
Personality disorders are caused by a combination of environmental and genetic factors. The genes associated with personality disorders may increase the risk of developing a personality disorder while environmental factors such as childhood trauma may trigger the actual development.
Several family, twin, and adoption studies have shown that personality disorders are moderately heritable, suggesting genes play a role in the development of personality disorders.
The environmental factors include the surroundings in which people grew up, events that occurred, and relationships with family members and other people.
Treatment of Personality Disorders
Personality disorders are a type of serious mental disorder. They are constant and unrelenting and are difficult to cure. Current treatment strategies including medications and psychotherapy aim to relieve the symptoms of personality disorders.
No drugs have been approved for the treatment of personality disorders. However, some types of prescription drugs may help to reduce all types of personality disorder symptoms, such as antidepressants and antipsychotic medications (neuroleptic).
Psychotherapy or "talk therapy" is a common strategy to control the symptoms of personality disorders. There are two common types of psychotherapy, dialectical behavior therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy. The former focuses on teaching the patients how to endure stress and improve relationships and the latter focuses on teaching the patients new patterns of thinking and behavior.
Our Capacities
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