What are Personality Disorders?
Personality disorders are pervasive chronic psychological disorders, which can greatly affect a person's life. Having a personality disorder can negatively affect an individual’s work, their family, and their social life. Personality disorders exist on a continuum, so they can be mild to more severe in terms of how pervasive and to what extent a person exhibits the features of a particular personality disorder.
While most people can live pretty normal lives with mild personality disorders (or more simply, personality traits), during times of increased stress or external pressures (work, family, a new relationship, etc), the symptoms of the personality disorder will gain strength and begin to seriously interfere with their emotional and psychological functioning.
Those with a personality disorder possess several distinct psychological features including disturbances in self-image; inability to have successful interpersonal relationships; inappropriateness of range of emotion; ways of perceiving themselves, others, and the world; and difficulty possessing proper impulse control. These disturbances come together to create a pervasive pattern of behaviour and inner experience that is quite different from the norms of the individual's culture, and that often tend to be expressed in behaviours that appear more dramatic than what society considers usual. Therefore, those with a personality disorder often experience conflicts with other people, and vice-versa.
The more severe a personality disorder is, the less likely that it will respond to hypnotherapy; psychiatric help may be required.
|
Personality Disorder |
Typical Symptoms |
|
Paranoid Personality Disorder |
Suspects, without sufficient basis, that others are exploiting, harming or deceiving him or her |
|
Schizoid Personality Disorder |
Shows emotional coldness, detachment or flattened affectivity |
|
Schizotypal Personality Disorder |
Behaviour or appearance that is odd, eccentric or peculiar |
|
Antisocial Personality Disorder |
Lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another |
|
Borderline Personality Disorder |
Recurrent suicidal behaviour, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behaviour |
|
Histrionic Personality Disorder |
Shows self-dramatisation, “theatricality” and exaggerated expression of emotion |
|
Narcissistic Personality Disorder |
Requires excessive admiration; has a sense of entitlement; has a grandiose sense of self-importance |
|
Avoidant Personality Disorder |
Views self as socially inept, personally unappealing or inferior to others |
|
Dependent Personality Disorder |
Has difficulty making everyday decisions without an excessive amount of advice and reassurance from others |
|
Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder |
Is preoccupied with details, rules, lists, order, organization or schedules to the extent that the major point of the activity is lost |
For Hypnotherapy Birmingham and help with Personality Disorders, call me for a free, without-obligation consultation on 0121 707 3588.