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Personality Disorders Explained: What Makes Each Unique

Personality refers to how a person thinks, behaves, or feels to distinguish himself from others. Life situations, surroundings, experiences, and inherited characteristics influence a person’s personality.

Accordingly, the personality of an individual remains the same over time. However, people with personality disorders have feelings, thinking, and behaviors that deviate from the expectations of their culture. Such disorders also cause problems with regular functions and distressing feelings. To conduct a detailed analysis, seeking treatment for personal and personality disorders in Gurgaon, Delhi, NCR, India is advisable.

If the disorder remains untreated, it may last for a long time, or maybe for a lifetime. To avoid long-lasting or lifetime personality disorders, individuals must undergo the right treatment at a reputed mental health clinic, like Athena Behavioral Health. However, psychologists in mental hospitals choose treatment based on the type of personality disorder, as we have discussed in our blog post.

Types of Personality Disorders

Personality disorders may be many types, but experts in mental health may group them into three different clusters based on their similarities in symptoms and characteristics. A detailed study of every type is essential for the appropriate treatment of personality disorders in Gurgaon, Delhi, NCR, India. A few people may also have symptoms related to multiple personality disorders.

Cluster A: Suspicious Disorder

Cluster A refers to a suspicious personality disorder, which contains the following prime disorders:

Paranoid Personality Disorder

Patients with paranoid disorders may often become distrustful of other people and show suspicious behavior in terms of their motives.

Schizoid Personality Disorder

When a person has schizoid personality disorder, he shows very little interest in creating personal relationships or tends to avoid social interactions. These people also have trouble interpreting social cues, which forces them to be emotionally distant.

Schizotypal Personality Disorder

If an individual has schizotypal personality disorder, he or she may influence other events or people based on their thoughts. Such individuals may misinterpret their behaviors, leading to incorrect emotional responses. People with schizotypal disorder may often avoid intimate relations.

Cluster B: Impulsive and Emotional

Cluster B contains impulsive and emotional disorders, and it also has the following categories:

Antisocial Personality Disorder

Individuals with antisocial personality disorder often tend to treat or manipulate others without expressing any remorse for their activities. They even engage in stealing, lying, and other related dishonest behavior. Depending on the extent of their disorder, they are prone to heavy drug or alcohol usage. If you suspect an individual has such a disorder, you must look for antisocial personality disorder treatment options immediately.

Borderline Personality Disorder

People who have borderline personality disorder feel empty or abandoned, regardless of support from their family members or community. These people face difficulty dealing with stressful events and paranoia episodes. Borderline disorder in individuals also forces them to be involved in impulsive and risky behaviors, like gambling and binge drinking.

Histrionic Personality Disorder

A person with histrionic personality disorder tries to gain more attention by being provocative or dramatic. People with histrionic disorders frequently succumb to external influences. Also, they are susceptible to disapproval and criticism.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Individuals with narcissistic personality disorder often believe themselves to be VIPs or more important than other people. They often exaggerate even their minor achievements and brag about their success or attractiveness. Alternatively, a few other narcissistic disorder patients lack empathy for their family members or friends and have an intense desire for attention or admiration from others.

Cluster C: Anxious Personality Disorder

Cluster C includes various categories related to anxious personality disorder. The sub-categories include the following:

Avoidant Personality Disorder

If a person has an avoidant personality disorder, he often goes through feelings of inferiority, inadequacy, and unattractiveness. Such people typically expect criticism from others and avoid participating in any new activities or making new friends.

Dependent Personality Disorder

People who have dependent personality disorder often depend on other people to fulfill their physical and emotional requirements. Such individuals often avoid staying alone and look for confirmation regularly while making decisions. These people cannot tolerate verbal and physical abuse at all.

Compulsive-Obsessive Personality

Individuals with compulsive-obsessive personality disorder show an overwhelming need to receive orders. They strictly adhere to the predefined rules and feel uncomfortable if they fail to perform anything perfectly. People who have compulsive-obsessive disorder usually overlook their personal relationships to focus on accomplishing a project perfectly.

Treatments for Personality Disorders

Dialectical behavioral therapy, a type of talk therapy or psychotherapy, is the prime treatment for personality disorders. The best thing about DBT is that it is the perfect treatment for bipolar and borderline personality disorders. However, mental hospitals and rehab centers also recommend using certain medications for treatment. The details of each personality disorder treatment in Gurgaon, Delhi, NCR, India, are as follows:

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy

Dialectical behavioral therapy is a type of talk therapy. It treats various personality disorders, including borderline personality disorder and schizophrenia. The therapy focuses on treating a few dangerous behaviors, including the ones that lead to committing suicide. Moreover, the therapy treats every behavior that affects the quality of one’s life.

This type of talk therapy involves weekly one-on-one sessions with a family therapist. Treatment will last for about one year.

Furthermore, patients may be required to participate in consultation groups that are specifically related to the DBT treatment process. Here, patients and therapists discuss various aspects of the treatment with the community. Depending on the condition, DBT therapists at Athena Behavioral Health or any other mental hospital provide coaching to ensure that the discussed treatment is applicable in real life.

Modules and Objectives of DBT

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy personality disorder treatment consists of the following modules:

  • Controlling one’s emotions
  • Dealing with distress
  • Practicing mindfulness
  • Maintaining efficient relationships with friends, family, and other individuals is crucial.

DBT psychotherapy to treat personality disorders has the following objectives:

  • The goal is to reduce depression, anxiety, and other immediate distress.
  • Helping the patient understand that his problems are internal and not caused by external situations or people is crucial.
  • Reducing socially undesirable and unhealthy behavior
  • Changing a few personality traits leads to difficulties.

Medicines for Treating Personality Disorders

Psychiatrists in rehabilitation centers and mental hospitals, including the ones at Athena Behavioral Health, use the following psychiatric medicines to manage personality disorder symptoms:

Antidepressants

These medicines help patients whenever they feel angry, depressed, irritable, impulsive, or hopeless. These symptoms are associated with personality disorders.

Anti-anxiety Medicines

As the name itself suggests, anti-anxiety medicines help patients whenever they feel anxious and fail to sleep.

Mood Stabilizers

Mood-stabilizing medicines prevent the patients’ mood swings and reduce their impulsive, aggressive, or irritable behavior.

Antipsychotic Medications

Neuroleptics or antipsychotic medications help patients if they have symptoms of losing contact with reality.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we categorize individual personality disorders into Clusters A, B, and C. However, regardless of the type and cluster, the problem can be treated with expert help from a well-known mental health clinic.

If your friend or family member has a personality disorder, contact the mental health professionals at Athena Behavioral Health call at +91 9289086193 and email customercare@athenabhs.com to get the required support and encouragement. Discussing with a healthcare professional will let you resolve your queries immediately. Professionals help you set limits and learn self-care techniques to lead a normal life as experts in the area.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a personality disorder?

Personality disorders are medical conditions characterized by long-term patterns of behaviors and thoughts that differ from what we consider normal in our lifestyle or culture.

Is it possible to recover from a personality disorder?

With time, many patients with personality disorders have noticed a natural reduction in their symptoms. Furthermore, some individuals experience a significant improvement in their functional abilities. However, the results vary among the patients.

How do mental hospitals treat personality disorders?

Mental hospitals use a combination of behavioral therapy and medications to treat personality disorders.

What is the most effective therapy to treat personality disorders?

Dialectical behavioral therapy is one of the most effective therapies to treat personality disorders. The therapy uses a skill-based approach to help patients learn to manage their emotions, deal with distress, and understand and establish relationships better.

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