Personality Disorders

Each person’s personality has a number of different aspects. We all have parts of our personality that can cause us problems in situations such as relationships. The level of difficulty can range from mild to more severe.

At the more severe end, there is significant distress or difficulty in a number of different aspects of someone’s life and these may be longstanding. It is this level of difficulty that can be termed a ‘disorder’.

There may also be other mental health issues present such as depression, anxiety or eating disorders.

Personality disorders are conditions in which an individual differs significantly from an average person in terms of how they think, perceive, feel or relate to others.

Changes in how a person feels and distorted beliefs about other people can lead to odd behaviour, which can be distressing and may upset others.

Common features include:

• being overwhelmed by negative feelings such as distress, anxiety, worthlessness or anger
• avoiding other people and feeling empty and emotionally disconnected
• difficulty managing negative feelings without self-harming (for example, abusing drugs and alcohol, or taking overdoses) or, in rare cases, threatening other people
• odd behaviour
• difficulty maintaining stable and close relationships, especially with partners, children and professional carers
• sometimes, periods of losing contact with reality

Symptoms typically get worse with stress. People with personality disorders often experience other mental health problems, especially depression and substance misuse.