Personality Disorder

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Personality Disorder

A personality disorder is a mental health condition involving all-encompassing, long-

lasting, disruptive patterns of thinking, mood, behavior, and interacting with others. The

practices associated with people suffering from personality disorders cause them distress and

impair their ability to function (Cleveland Clinic, 2022). In most cases, people with personality

disorders do not realize that their thinking patterns, behaviors, and thoughts are problematic,

hence failing to seek early medical intervention. Several different personality disorders are

grouped into two major groups, cluster A and cluster B. Cluster A personality disorders involve

eccentric and unusual behaviors or thinking, while cluster B personality disorders involve erratic

and dramatic behaviors.

Diagnosing people with personality disorders is crucial since they lack a stable and

precise image of themselves. How they perceive themselves changes depending on the company

of people they are with or the situation. They are basically associated with self-esteem, which is

unrealistically high or low (Cleveland Clinic, 2022). In addition, people with personality

disorders struggle to create close and stable relationships with others. This contributes to their

problematic beliefs and behaviors, including being emotionally detached, lacking respect and

empathy, and being overly needy of attention (Cleveland Clinic, 2022). In addition, some

personality disorders are associated with extremely dangerous behaviors, including aggressive

and violent behavior, persistent stealing, lying, impulsive and risky behavior like having unsafe

sex, isolation, and inability to pick up normal social cues. Therefore, people who have

personality disorders require immediate diagnosis and treatment to help them conform to normal

human behaviors.

Personality disorders are one of the most minor understood conditions in medicine that is

still under continous research to determine its leading causes. However, it has already been

established that personality disorders are commonly caused by biological and environmental

factors, including childhood trauma, genetics, verbal abuse, and brain changes (Cleveland Clinic,

2022). Researchers have established that a malfunctioning gene may contribute to obsessive-

compulsive personality disorder and also connected genetics to anxiety, aggression, and fear,

which are common traits in personality disorder. Brain changes also contribute to paranoid

personality disorder by altering amygdala functioning (part of the brain responsible for

processing threatening and fearful stimuli). In addition, the environment in which one has been

brought up may contribute to an individual developing a personality disorder (Cleveland Clinic,

2022). For example, people with borderline personality disorder have gone through childhood

trauma, especially childhood sexual trauma and verbal abuse.

Reference

Cleveland Clinic. (2022, April 16). Personality Disorders: Types, Causes, Symptoms &

Treatment. Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/9636-

personality-disorders-overview#symptoms-and-causes