- [Lily] Hi there (indistinct).
Before we begin,
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Our mission is to help everyone learn about psychology
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Now let's start.
Despite the growing number of online resources
on mental disorders,
there's still a lot of misinformation
and stigma surrounding them.
Mental disorders are sometimes misrepresented
and even glamorized on social media,
and personality traits can be mistaken for mental disorders
or vice versa.
As such, this video aims to raise awareness
about different mental disorders.
However, it should not be used to self-diagnose.
If you relate to any of the signs in this video,
please seek help from a licensed mental health professional
to avoid improper diagnosis.
With that said, let's begin.
One, perfectionism and OCD.
According to the American Psychological Association,
perfectionism is the desire to achieve
an extremely high level of performance,
accompanied by overly critical self-evaluations,
and other people's evaluations of you.
In people with obsessive compulsive disorder,
perfectionism often manifests in compulsions
or the need to do something
like organizing things in a particular way
or repeatedly doing something
in a way that disrupts their normal life.
Unlike perfectionism in typically functioning people
or people with anxiety or major depressive disorder,
people with OCD are perfectionists
in response to the obsessive part of their disorder.
Failure to follow through with the perfectionist compulsions
often leads to feelings of anxiety, panic,
or a sense of doom that can harm their personal life
and relationships.
As such, praising people with OCD for their perfectionism
or attention to detail can be harmful,
because it negates the uncomfortable
and fearful feelings that motivates their actions.
Not only that, using the term OCD
to describe a perfectionistic typical functioning person
downplays the struggles of people
who are actually diagnosed with OCD.
Two, procrastination and major depressive disorder.
While procrastination is a common trait,
it can occur as a side effect of major depressive disorder
or clinical depression.
Research has linked brooding
and lower levels of self-compassion with procrastination
to factors that are also common signs of depression.
Other symptoms of depression
that might cause procrastination are fatigue,
difficulty concentrating, restlessness,
and feelings of hopelessness or emptiness.
It can be difficult
for those experiencing a depressive episode
to be productive,
because even small tasks like getting out of bed
take a lot of energy to accomplish.
Those who don't understand how it feels to have depression
may label those with major depressive disorder as lazy
or bad with time management.
But their procrastination may stem from their disorder
rather than their personality.
Three, suspicion and paranoid personality disorder.
While most people have jumped to conclusions
or felt like they're being watched
at some point in their life,
when these suspicions are almost constant,
they could be a sign of paranoid personality disorder.
Symptoms of paranoid personality disorder include:
fear that people in your life are trying to harm you
without evidence,
extreme distrust and suspicion
that others will use your words against you,
and reading malicious intent in people's benign
or indifferent actions towards you
and lashing out in response.
Paranoia could also be a symptom of mental disorders
such as schizophrenia or borderline personality disorder.
Because personality disorders
affect parts of someone's personality,
it may be even harder for people
without a mental health background
to distinguish between someone's personality
and their mental disorder.
It's important to have empathy in these situations
and avoid telling people who have been diagnosed
with these personality disorders that they're overreacting,
because this creates a false narrative
that associates paranoia with their personality.
Four, shyness and social anxiety disorder.
Although there can be overlap
between shyness and social anxiety,
shyness is a personality trait,
that is usually defined as hyper-awareness of other people,
physical symptoms, such as shaking and sweating
and quietness or withdrawal in social situations.
While social anxiety is presented as more intense
and distressing towards a person's everyday functioning.
In addition, the basis of shyness
comes from someone's personality,
while social anxiety stems from fear.
People who are shy are usually aware of themselves
in social situations,
and take a longer time to open up to and get to know others,
but they don't feel it as strongly or worry about it as much
as people with social anxiety disorder do.
Social anxiety can cause people to panic.
And as a result, they often avoid social situations
because it triggers fear responses
and they might be extremely fearful of people's judgments.
This anxiety goes far deeper
than the discomfort that may come from shyness.
Five, egotism and narcissistic personality disorder.
You can probably think of a person
who has talked themselves up
and boasted about their successes at some point.
But if this person vastly exaggerates their accomplishments,
finds it difficult to empathize with others,
and demand special treatment from everyone,
including people of the same or higher qualification,
they could be suffering
from narcissistic personality disorder,
rather than an egotistical personality.
Six, impulsivity and bipolar disorder.
Impulsivity is often seen as a fun and even desirable trait,
with self-help resources frequently encouraging us
to switch up our routine.
But in the case of bipolar disorder,
impulsivity comes in the form of risky decisions
that people with BD may later regret doing.
Impulsivity in people with bipolar disorder
usually occurs during manic episodes,
heightened moods that typically come with increased energy,
multitasking and irritability,
and an increased risk for dangerous or harmful behaviors.
Examples of impulsive behaviors
someone with bipolar disorder might do are: spending sprees,
gambling, reckless driving, unprotected sex, drug use,
or binge eating and drinking.
And although movies and TV shows
often portray these actions as exciting,
the real life consequences include: financial loss,
relationship conflict, property damage,
health complications and even death.
Glamorizing them takes away
from what someone with bipolar disorder
might be experiencing as a result.
Seven, distraction and ADHD.
ADHD is a mental disorder
that involves three types of behaviors:
inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.
People who are diagnosed with ADHD may have one
or a combination of these signs.
People with inattentive ADHD often forget things,
have trouble concentrating on a single task,
struggle to be organized,
and have difficulty paying attention to others.
For a person who is less educated about ADHD,
they may take negatively to a person with inattentive ADHD
for not listening to them or caring about them,
when in fact their disorder
makes it difficult for them to pay attention
without getting distracted by their thoughts
or external stimuli.
Eight, attention seeking
and histrionic personality disorder.
There are many reasons why someone might seek attention
or validation from others,
including low self-esteem, self-doubt, and trust issues.
But if someone is a part of the two to 3% of the population
diagnosed with histrionic personality disorder,
their need for external validation
goes beyond seeking reassurance.
People with histrionic personality disorder
can feel worthless or undervalued
if they are not at the center of attention,
and often react with strong emotional outbursts
in response to these feelings.
Those with HPD might also try
to retain other people's attention
through flirtatious and sometimes inappropriate behavior,
bright clothing and bold claims.
A person with histrionic personality disorder
is more than just needy or high maintenance,
and labeling them as such can be harmful,
because it shifts the focus
from their personality affecting disorder
to their individual personality.
Nine, people pleasing and dependent personality disorder.
Many people find it difficult to say no to others
and struggle to set boundaries.
However, people with dependent personality disorder
feel intense fear
when they have to do anything by themselves,
which can include every day tasks
like choosing when to wake up or what to have for breakfast.
Those with dependent personality disorder
are also more likely to stay in an abusive relationship,
change jobs, or move to stay with their significant other
or another person they're dependent on,
and jump into a new relationship
immediately after their previous one ends.
At the heart of it all,
the difference that sets personality traits
apart from mental disorders
is the impact it has on someone's daily life.
Traits such as perfectionism and attention seeking
are okay for the majority of people,
but when it comes to a source of significant stress
in your everyday life preventing you from living normally,
it may be a sign of something more
and thus requires the advice
and diagnosis of a mental health professional.
It's important to give people the benefit of the doubt.
There may be reasons why someone is acting in a certain way
that you are unaware of.
Again, please note that this video
aims to clear up different ambiguities and confusion
surrounding personality traits and mental disorders,
but does not claim to diagnose anyone with
or without a disorder.
Have you or someone you know ever experienced confusion
between these traits and mental disorders?
What was your experience with it and how did you react?
Let us know in the comments below.
If you enjoyed this video and learned something new,
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Thanks for watching, and we'll see you next time.