Abstract
Everyone has their own individual character. People’s characters may be similar but definitely are not the same. Most people do not have issues with it and have no problems with their interactions in society and compliance with its laws and regulations. However, some personal features are very different from the expected norms and from generally accepted rules of behavior that cause irritation, discomfort and lack of understanding of others. Such features of temper can cause problems, which affect not only patients but also their close and distant surroundings. Such condition is called personality disorder. Worth noting, that patients generally can be not aware of the problem they have and consider their behavior to be correct. This research discusses and analyses the variety of types of this disorder, differences between them; provides a broad overview of the problem. Therefore, each type has its own features and conditions due to which it appears and it is essential to analyze and understand each of them.
A personality disorder is a persistent anomaly of the person characterized by disharmony of emotional and volitional side and mainly affects thinking. We can often hear that overly emotional or eccentric people are treated with caution (“Personality disorder”, 2014). However, anyone hardly thinks over the true meaning of this issue. The personality disorder is a serious disturbance that is determined by the over-expression of one of the personality traits with the underdevelopment of others. This diagnosis includes a plurality of the different disorders.
Personality disorders are complex deep-rooted rigid and maladaptive personality traits that determine the specific perception and attitude toward self and others, the reduction of social adaptation and, as a rule, the subjective emotional discomfort, and distress (“Personality disorder”, 2014). The reasons because of which they occur most often appear in adolescence or even in childhood, and every kind of personality disorder has its typical age of formation. Since the beginning of its inception, the maladaptive personality traits already are delineated in time and permeate during the entire period of adulthood (“Personality disorder”, 2014). These traits affect all areas of personality - emotional and volitional area, thinking, and interpersonal behavior style. The main symptoms of a personality disorder are the totality of pathological character traits that manifest themselves in any environment (home, work); the stability of the pathological traits that are identified in childhood and persist throughout adulthood; social maladjustment, which is a consequence of pathological character traits, and not due to unfavorable environmental conditions.
Personality disorders are found in 6-9% of the population. Their origin is in most cases ambiguous. Their development is due to different causes such as pathological heredity (especially alcoholism, mental illness, parents personality disorders), all sorts of exogenous organic impact (traumatic brain injury, and other not gross brain damage at the age of 3-4 years, as well as perinatal disorders), social factors (unfavorable conditions of upbringing in a childhood, as a result of the loss of parents or upbringing in an incomplete family, patients with alcoholism, antisocial personality, having the wrong educational settings) (“Personality disorder - an overview”, 2014).
There are many classifications of personality disorders. Generally, they are classified into three groups – Suspicious, Emotional and impulsive, Anxious; and there are 10 main types of personality disorders, each of which can be separated into the mentioned groups. The suspicious group consists of paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal and antisocial types. The emotional and impulsive group includes borderline, histrionic and narcissistic types. The last group is Anxious and in consists of the following types: avoidant, dependent, obsessive-compulsive (“Personality disorders”, (n.d.)). It is very important to explore each of these types as they vary and the approach to each is very different.
Paranoid Personality Disorder
A person who suffers from this disorder have a tendency to find evil intentions in others; tendency to overvalued ideas, the most important of which is the idea of the special significance of the patient. Such patients rarely ask for help and denies the manifestation of personality disorders. Such people are extremely sensitive to criticism, are constantly unhappy with daily issues (Grohol, 2016). They are very suspicion and the general tendency to distort facts by misinterpretation of the neutral or friendly actions of others as hostile, often result in unreasonable thoughts about conspiracies (“Personality disorders”, 2014).
Schizoid personality disorder
Schizoid personality disorder is characterized by insularity, uncommunicative, inability to warm emotional relationships with others, decreased interest in sexual intercourse, a penchant for autistic fantasy, introversion systems, difficulties in understanding and mastering of the accepted norms of behavior, which manifests itself in bizarre actions. People with schizoid personality disorder usually live with their unusual interests and hobbies, where they can achieve great success. Generally, they are well functioning and does not have troubles despite their oddness (Burton, 2012).
Schizotypal personality disorder
This type is very alike to the previous one, however, has some differences. The behavior of such individuals is considered to be very odd. They tend to use unusual words and phrases and may have beliefs in magical issues (for instance, that they have “fifth sense”, can talk to the devil and so on). They are often characterized by enthusiasm for the various philosophies and ideas of how to improve their lives, especially a patient does not have to deal directly with other people, but they do not like to share these ideas with others. These people have a high risk of developing schizophrenia, or such condition as ‘latent schizophrenia’ (Burton, 2012).
Antisocial personality disorder
Antisocial personality disorder is characterized by the gross disparity between behavior and the prevailing social norms. Such patients are often considered to have a superficial charm (Burton, 2012) but this is a short-term condition. The main feature of this type is continuous strive to have fun as much as possible and avoid labor, they can be easily irritated and bored. Their lives have a rich history of antisocial behavior: lying, truancy, running away from home, involvement in criminal groups, fighting, alcoholism, anesthesia, theft, manipulating others for their own benefit, etc. The peak of antisocial behavior falls on late adolescence (16-18 y.o.) (“Personality disorders”, (n.d.)).
Borderline personality disorder
The first symptoms of this psychopathology usually manifest themselves in early childhood. For patients characterized by rash, impulsive behavior. In adults, this disorder causes impulsiveness, inability to build stable relationships with others, low self-esteem. Common symptoms of the disease and include the fear of loneliness, lack of individuality, and the inability to defend their own point of view. The propensity to suicidal behavior is observed in the majority of patients with borderline personality disorder, and about 10% of them actually commit suicide (Burton, 2012).
Histrionic personality disorder
Histrionic personality disorder is characterized by excessive emotionality and the desire to attract attention, which manifests in different situations. Most of this disorder manifests itself among women. Here are the main features that are typical of this disorder: the search for the attention of others to itself, the volatility in the affections, moodiness, an irresistible desire to always be the center of attention, to cause the sympathy or surprise (no matter for what reason) (“Personality disorders”, (n.d.)).
Narcissistic personality disorder
It is most clearly manifested in adolescence through the thoughts of the person about his own greatness, needs in admiration from others. Such patient does not admit that he can become the object of criticism, he either denies it or uncontrolled anger appears (Grohol, 2016). It is worth noting the features that occupy a special place in the mental life of a person with narcissistic personality disorder: unreasonable idea of their right to a privileged position, automatic satisfaction of desires; the tendency to explode with anger; use others for their own purposes; envy of others or belief that other people have envious attitude towards patient (Grohol, 2016).
Avoidant (or anxious) personality disorder
An anxious (evading, avoidant) personality disorder is characterized by the limit in social contacts, a sense of inferiority and hypersensitivity to negative evaluation. Since early childhood, these patients are characterized as overly timid and shy, they perceive a distorted attitude toward themselves, exaggerating its negativity, as well as risks and dangers of everyday life. It is difficult for them to speak in public or just refer to someone. The loss of social support often leads to anxiety and depression (Grohol, 2016).
Dependent personality disorder
This personality disorder is characterized by profound passive submission to other people in big and small decisions in life; has a strong fear of loneliness; feels helpless and incompetent; passively accepts of the seniors and others desires; agrees to things that he actually dislikes; has the lack of confidence (Grohol, 2016). The lack of activity can be expressed in the intellectual and emotional spheres; often expressed the tendency to shifting responsibility to others (“Personality disorders”).
Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder
People with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder are characterized by concerns about the order, the pursuit of perfection, control of mental activity and interpersonal relations to the detriment of their own flexibility and productivity. This greatly shortens their adaptive capacities to the outside world. Patients are deprived of one of the most important mechanisms of adaptation to the outside world - a sense of humor (Grohol, 2016). Always serious, they are intolerant to anything that threatens the order and perfection. Persistent doubts about the decision-making caused by the fear of making a mistake and it poisons their joy of working, but at the same time fear is not letting them change their place of work. In adulthood, when it becomes apparent that they have achieved professional success, but it does not meet the initial expectations and efforts of the patients, a risk of depression problems increases (Grohol, 2016).
Personality disorders are conditions that can last during the whole lifetime, decreasing or amplifying in its manifestations, depending on the environment and related diseases. Such disorders have unpredictable pressure on the daily life of a person, and sometimes medical care is necessary. Thus, the psychotherapist can understand and define the way how to help such person and arrange his adaptation.
As already mentioned, a personality disorder is a type of mental illness associated with problems of perception of situations, people, including the patient himself. There are many specific types of personality disorders. These mental disorders, which are often considered to be features of character, such as an unhealthy way of thinking and behavior, no matter what the situation is, can lead to significant problems and limitations in relationships, communicate with other people, issues at work and school.
In most cases, people can not understand that he has a personality disorder because his mindset and behavior seems natural for him, and the patient often blames others for various problems arising in the process of interpersonal contact. A personality disorder is a serious problem that can not be left unattended and once noticed has to be should be treated.
References:
“Personality disorders” (n.d.) Mind for better mental health. Retrieved from: http://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/personality-disorders/types-of-personality-disorder/#.VzBgDYSLTcs
Burton Neel (2012) “The 10 Personality Disorders”, Psychology today. Retrieved from:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hide-and-seek/201205/the-10-personality-disorders
“Personality disorder” (2014), NHS choices. Retrieved from:
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Personality-disorder/Pages/Definition.aspx
Grohol M. John (2016) “Personality disorders”, PsychCentral. Retrieved from: http://psychcentral.com/personality/
“Personality disorders” (2014), Mayo Clinic Health Letter. Retrieved from: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/personality-disorders/basics/symptoms/con-20030111
“Personality disorder - an overview” (2014), MindHealthConnect. Retrieved from: http://www.mindhealthconnect.org.au/personality-disorder
