Personality and disorders – Part 1

We all have a personality. We might call some people loving or caring. Introverted or extraverted. Angry or aggressive. Anxious or self-centred. Or a whole host of other things. But what does that really mean? I found a website that provides a definition of personality. It says

personality is made up of the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviors that make a person unique. In addition to this, personality arises from within the individual and remains fairly consistent throughout life.

Our personality is an internal aspect of our experience and includes thoughts, feelings and behaviours. The way we think, feel and act. These quirks and characteristics remain pretty stable throughout our life and are unique to each of us. And yet for the majority, the differences between one person and the next is not that huge. I’m sure that we could all look around a room full of people and note that every single person conforms to a set of socially acceptable behaviours. And when we discuss our thoughts and feelings we would find that we have a lot in common.

But there are a group of people who possess quirks that are outside this “norm”. This is very different to simply finding people who have different ways of thinking. We all have unique thoughts and feelings, but there is always a sense of commonality underlying that uniqueness. The difference between “normal” and “not normal” can sometimes be quite subtle, but it can also be very clear. The American Psychological Association says,

Personality disorders are seen by professionals and researchers as an enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the culture of the individual who exhibits it. These patterns are inflexible and pervasive across many situations. The onset of the pattern can be traced back at least to the beginning of adulthood. To be diagnosed as a personality disorder, a behavioral pattern must cause significant distress or impairment in personal, social, and/or occupational situations.

Wow, what a mouthful! More simply, differences are mostly noticeable with social interactions. There is inflexibility in thinking and a very narrow set of beliefs. So when interacting with others, a person with a personality disorder always has to be right and will go out of their way to prove it. They will have difficulties making or keeping relationships, getting on with friends, family or colleagues, staying out of trouble and controlling their feelings and behaviour. This website has a simpler explanation than the more technical one above and also briefly looks at some of the treatments available.

Causes

There is some debate about what causes a personality disorder and there are no definite answers. Some say genetics (family genes) play a part. Childhood trauma and abuse has also been looked at, which studies suggest are particularly relevant for Borderline Personality Disorder. This website briefly looks at some of the research. The behaviours and habits of people with personality disorders are usually seen early in their lives, sometimes in childhood, and are commonly diagnosed between about 18 and 36.

I’m not too sure exactly how it works, how or where things go haywire. I believe there are still a lot of researchers arguing about it. If you would like to read some more, technical information you can go here. You’ll notice the list of all the different types, one of which is Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). We are going to focus on this one as an example because we don’t have the time or space to get through all of them.

In the next post we will look at BPD and the experience of living with it.

Focus Month 1

I’m excited!

I had a brainwave the other day and have decided to change things up a little with this blog. Each month we will be focusing on a different topic. For the rest of January (and maybe February, depending on how much there is to talk about) it will be Mental Health. Those issues that are generally “diagnosed” as a mental illness. They are usually diagnosed by people with a medical degree, generally either a General Practitioner (GP) or psychiatrist. For accuracy (particularly for the more complex issues) it is preferable coming from a doctor with a specialty in mental health. That is, a psychiatrist.

We will cover a variety of illnesses and for each will do a post with information about it, common symptoms and treatments. This will be followed by 1 or 2 posts from people who live with the condition. I think it is important that people are able to get an accurate picture of what it is really like to live with mental illness. There is a lot of stigma around about how “dangerous” people with this kind of illness are. The fact is that for the most part, the lives of the people with mental illness are just the same as those without. They function well, have work, families, and so on, and simply face a few more challenges than people without the illness.

To diagnose mental illness a specific set of criteria must be met and be sustained over a certain time period. This is different for each illness and depends on a lot of different factors. A big part of the training for mental health professionals is how to look at the criteria and interpret them for each individual client. In Australia the bible for each professional is called the DSM; the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This contains a description of each illness, its unique set of criteria and how to interpret what the client (and in some cases their family) describes. Every few years there is a revision of the manual, where new criteria are included, things are taken out or adjusted. The current edition is number 5, so the accurate name of the document is the DSM-5.

The World Health Organisation’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) is also used as a diagnostic tool. It includes physical illnesses as well as mental. And while it is primarily used in the USA, some Australian Professionals use it to supplement the DSM.

As part of this focus month we will cover anxiety, depression, suicide, personality disorders and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Also a possibility is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), eating disorders and a whole host of others. If you would like to see any of them please comment below or contact me privately and I will do my best to include information as appropriate. Equally, if you live with one of these illnesses (either one I have listed here or a different one) and would like to share your story, I would love to hear from you! If you don’t want to identify yourself, you are more than welcome to go incognito.

I’ll look forward to hearing from you!