Personality Disorders

Understanding Personality

What is your “personality”? Your personality is a combination of your inherent traits and patterns that distinguish you from others and define your character. Your personality also involves your perspective on others and how you see the world. A healthy personality can maintain control and balance when stressors appear and can maintain balanced relationships with others.

Defining Personality Disorders

Personality disorders make it hard for sufferers to cope with the ebb and flow of life and relationships. Those dealing with these types of disorders do not react well to change or the needs of other. They may not see this, however, and believe that they are the ones in the right. Their lives tend to be rigidly controlled and narrow in scope, with sometimes limited social activity.

Recognizing a Personality Disorder

The patterns of behavior in an individual must be severe enough to affect their quality of life via distress or impaired function in order for these traits to qualify an individual for a personality disorder. Mental health professionals can recognize personality disorders relatively early in life, but they can become less obvious as individual’s age.

The Causes of a Personality Disorder

Some clinicians believe that personality disorders have a genetic component. Others adhere to the idea that early childhood trauma causes personality disorders to develop. In certain scenarios, a genetic vulnerability can be triggered by circumstance and environment.