There are a number of categories of personality disorder which cover a wide range of attitudes and behaviour.

The word 'personality' refers to the enduring patterns of thoughts, feelings and outward behaviour which are characteristic of an individual. Most people are flexible enough to be able to learn from past experiences and change their behaviour in order to cope more effectively.

For whatever reason, for some people, parts of their personality can develop in ways that make it difficult for them to live with yourself and/or with other people. People experiencing PD can appear not to be able to learn from experience. With personality disorder, people find it difficult to change the unhelpful ways of thinking, feeling and behaving that cause the problems. These traits, although they are part of who they are, can make life difficult for themselves and often for other people as well.

Having a personality disorder can make it difficult for sufferers to develop friendships, maintain stable partnerships and work cooperatively with others.  This inflexibility is often related to having suffered severe trauma in childhood and the sufferer should not be blamed for their condition. Personality disorders differ in the degree to which they disrupt the person's life or the lives of others and in the extent to which they can be treated. They often begin or become noticeable during adolescence or early adulthood.

Treatment

Personality disorders are difficult to treat because they involve long-term pervasive patterns of thoughts, feelings and ways of relating to other people. More positive outcomes tend to be associated with personality disorders which are comparatively mild. However, research focusing on more severe personality disorders also suggests that over a period of years some people are capable of modifying and changing their outlook.

In addition to medication, there are a diverse range of therapies which are used in the treatment of personality disorder such as DBT (Dialectical Behavioural Therapy), mentalisation, cognitive therapy, schema focussed therapy through to treatment in therapeutic communities.

For more specialist information on personality disorder, contact our Personality Disorder Carer Advocates

please call us on 028 90 650 650

For more information