Hello I m Darren Magee and todays topic is from a question if I would give a general overview of
personality disorders. Now if you like this video if you find it helpful please consider subscribing
to my channel for future updates on mental health related topics. But just as a reminder,
this video is not a substitute for support from a mental health professional, nor is it a tool to be
used to diagnose someone. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to mention the personality
disorders and the common characteristics and the behaviours associated with them, but if you want
more information on a specific personality disorder, well I ve made previous videos on
those if you want to check those out. Any that I haven't covered yet is all my to do list and I
will get around to it. So what is a personality disorder? Well first of all our personality is
what makes us different. from each other. It's our way of thinking, behaving and feeling. It's
how we interact with the world around us. And our personality is influenced by our experience,
our environment, as well as any inherited characteristics. And as much as we may grow and
change over the years, our personality generally says the same. A personality disorder however,
now that s a way of thinking and behaving and feeling even that causes distress. It's a way of
thinking, feeling and behaving that deviates from, say, the cultural norm that societal expectations,
and it can cause distress for the person with the disorder as well as for those around them. I often
think about disorder as looking at the impact it has on a person's day to day functioning,
as well as the impact it has on their relationship with themselves as well as others. And in order
for it to be a disorder there has to be a long term pattern of behaviours and inner experiences,
usually, though not always, starting in adolescence or early adulthood.
It affects ways of thinking about oneself and others, and indeed just relating to the
world around them. There can be difficulty with regulating emotions and behaviours.
And there are ten specific disorders and they re categorised into three different clusters.
There's Cluster A, Cluster B and Cluster C. Now Cluster A personality disorders are characterised
by odd eccentric thinking or behaviours and include paranoid personality disorder. A common
characteristic of this is finding it hard to trust or to confide in others. There is a belief
that people can and will deceive and harm them. Then there s schizoid personality. Now commonly
with this disorder we see someone who's detached from, from social relationships and expressed
little emotion. Then there s schizotypal personality disorder now what we see here is
distorted thinking and eccentric behaviours. Their dress sense even. They can feel uncomfortable,
even very anxious around social situations. Cluster B is characterised by dramatic,
overly emotional, unpredictable thinking or behaviours and that includes anti-social
personality disorder. What we see that with this is a pattern of disregard or violation of rules
and the rights of others. Someone who doesn't conform to social norms and acts impulsively.
Borderline personality disorder is characterised by instability in personal relationships,
an intense fear of abandonment. People with borderline personality have
difficulty regulating their emotions, and can lash out angrily. The thing with borderline
personality is people with borderline personality can problem solve and explore solutions. However,
there is a difficulty being able to implement those solutions. Histrionic personality disorder
is characterised by excessive attention seeking behaviours and they can feel uncomfortable if
they are not the centre of attention. With this personality we often see exaggerated emotions,
outrageous stories and using their physical appearance to gain attention. And lastly in
Cluster B, there's narcissistic personality disorder, which is often characterised by a
sense of entitlement. There's a lack of empathy for others and intense disagreeableness. There's
haughtiness and a sense of self-importance. There is also being either highly resistant or highly
sensitive to any form of criticism. And lastly, there's Cluster C. Now this is characterised by
anxious, fearful thinking or behaviours and includes avoidant personality. Now what we
have here is a pervasive pattern of extreme shyness. Feeling inadequate and a preoccupation
with either being criticised or rejected. There is a self-perception of being inept. Then there is
dependent personality disorder. This is a pattern of submissive and clingy behaviour and needing to
be taken care of. People with this disorder can have difficulty in making their own decisions.
They feel as if they always need reassurance or permission from others. They can fear being alone,
believing that they are unable to look after themselves. And lastly obsessive
compulsive personality disorder, not to be confused with obsessive compulsive disorder,
although they can often be comorbid. This is a pervasive preoccupation with orderliness,
perfection and the need for control. So that's a brief outline of the ten personality disorders.
And at times the disorders can be comorbid, meaning there can be more than one personality
disorder present in a person at the same time. But when it comes to treatment, there are
different approaches. I'm only going to cover a few. First of all, certain types of psychotherapy
can be effective for people, helping them gain insight into the disorder and to psycho-educate
them, help them to understand what contributes to or exacerbates their symptoms. Helps them to
understand the impact of their behaviour that has on others, and indeed how even that behaviour how
impacts on others, how that impacts on them. And the types of psychotherapy that are effective
can differ from person to person, but common approaches are Dialectical Behaviour Therapy,
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Psychodynamic, and Psychoanalytical theory and therapy. Group therapy
can also be helpful in some cases. But regardless of the therapeutic approach, people can learn to
self-care onto self-soothe. They learn coping strategies and ways to regulate how they feel
and how they behave, so that's a quick outline of the personality clusters and the personality
disorders in those clusters. If you have any comments, please use the comment box below.
There have been some interesting comments and discussions starting around these videos.
If you like this video, if you found it helpful, please consider subscribing to my channel for
future updates or mental health related topics and until next time, thanks for watching.