The following is a guide to personality types. Individuals suffering from personality disorders experience distress due to their thought patterns and behaviors. Individuals with personality disorders often suffer from inflexible thoughts that hinder them from coping with stress, solving problems, or developing healthy relationships.
Psychologists, psychiatrists, or social workers can diagnose personality disorders, and there are many types of personality disorders. While many personality disorders have overlapping symptoms, each one typically includes a defining characteristic.
1. Borderline Personality Disorder: Types of Personality Disorders
The symptoms of this personality disorder include self-harm, a highly unstable mood, and a tendency to view oneself or others as purely good or bad. In addition, people with borderline personality disorder (BPD) usually have difficulty establishing (or maintaining) meaningful relationships with others. Behaviours that are chaotic, emotional instability, and fear of abandonment are all symptoms of BPD.
2. Antisocial Personality Disorder
Conflict seems to be a necessity for those suffering from an antisocial personality disorder. Since they don’t care about social conventions against that sort of behavior, they may have physical or verbal altercations with people they don’t even know like a shop clerk. Legal disputes and litigations are also frequent among them. It is also possible for antisocial people to behave abusively in interpersonal relationships without remorse. The disorder can also lead to substance abuse.
3. Histrionic Personality Disorder
Histrionic personality disorders are characterized by overly emotional, dramatic behavior in circumstances that are not warranted. Dramatic behavior also serves the purpose of attracting attention to the individual. Histrionics often obsess over how they look and constantly seek approval from others.
4. Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Types of Personality Disorders
Despite their apparent self-importance, narcissistic personalities tend to be insecure. Narcissists tend to exploit other people in interpersonal relationships without feeling remorse. Critiques or failures are also extremely painful for narcissists. It is common for people with this disorder to experience physical aches and pains that cannot ultimately be attributed to any medical condition.
5. Avoidant Personality Disorder
An avoidant personality disorder is characterized by extreme fear of rejection and criticism, which prevents the person from engaging in meaningful relationships with others. An avoidant personality also feels a strong need to be liked by everyone and feels crushed if they believe they have said or done something foolish in public. Since they are emotionally fragile, they avoid social situations at all costs.
6. Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder: Types of Personality Disorders
A personality disorder associated with obsessive-compulsive patterns (OCDP) is different from an obsessional-compulsive disorder (OCD). An OCD disorder involves repetitive thoughts and actions combined with uncontrollable thoughts. On the other hand, OCPD is characterized by perfectionism at the expense of flexibility and inclusiveness.
Additionally, people with OCPD tend to have a “my way or the highway” attitude toward work and life routines. OCPD also usually involves very rigid systems of decision-making, which cannot be deviated from.
7. Schizoid Personality Disorder
Schizophrenia, a serious mental illness that includes hallucinations and the very disordered thinking, is not the same thing as a schizoid personality disorder. The person suffering from Schizophrenia may manifest as a person who appears emotionally cold and preoccupied with their internal fantasies rather than real life. They might describe themselves as “dreamers” rather than “realists.”
8. Schizotypal Personality Disorder: Types of Personality Disorders
Once again, this type of personality disorder is different from schizophrenia. A person with a schizotypal personality disorder may also behave very eccentrically or hold bizarre beliefs that ostracize them from others. Schizophrenia and social anxiety often occur together. Psychopaths who suffer from schizotypal personality disorder also believe they can read people’s minds.
9. Paranoid Personality Disorder
It is common for people with a paranoid personality disorder to be extremely distrustful of others. Interactions with others pose a threat to them. In response to this skewed viewpoint, people with paranoid personality disorder also act in a very guarded or secretive manner. A person who is paranoid may also become violent if they perceive someone is ridiculing or threatening them.
10. Dependent Personality Disorder: Types of Personality Disorders
As a predominant characteristic of dependent personality disorder, individuals are unwilling or unable to make their own decisions or actively participate in managing their lives. Dependents are also generally submissive or timid, and rarely initiate relationships with others. Even inconsequential decisions can also become overwhelming tasks that require multiple sources of input and reassurance for people with an independent personality disorder.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is often used to treat personality disorders. However, no one should self-diagnose mental illness. Psychologists, psychiatrists, and also social workers are the only ones capable of diagnosing a personality disorder and creating a treatment plan.
Also Read: Top 10 Inspirational Hollywood Movies on Mental Illness
5 Comments