Orlando Counselor on Understanding Personality Disorders

Understanding the distinctions between personality disorders and other mental health problems is crucial for diagnosing and treating these conditions effectively, particularly according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. While both fall under the umbrella of mental health issues, they differ in their symptoms, duration, impact, and treatment approaches, which a mental health provider should strongly consider, including the guidelines from Mental Health America and the American Psychiatric Association.

What are the Key Differences from our Orlando Personality Disorder Counseling Expert

1. Nature of the Problem of Personality Disorders

• Personality Disorders: These are character trait driven that involve long-term patterns of behavior, cognition, and emotional experience that deviate significantly from social interactions and the expectations of the individual. These disorders represent an enduring pattern of inner experience that is inflexible and pervasive across various situations, often causing distress and functional impairment in interpersonal relationships, work, and interpersonal functioning. There are several different types of personality disorders, including cluster B personality disorders, which encompass dramatic and erratic behaviors, often characterized by a lack of empathy. This contrasts with conditions like obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. Each different type of personality disorder presents different symptoms, with examples including histrionic personality disorder (HPD), borderline personality disorder (BPD), paranoid personality disorder, dependent personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder and the most common types such as narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), which often leads to individuals believing they deserve special treatment, avoidant personality disorder (AVPD), and antisocial personality disorder (ASPD).

Mental Health Disorders: These conditions are symptom based driven that disrupt normal functioning by affecting mood, fear of abandonment, thoughts, or behavior. They often arise due to chemical imbalances in the brain or external stressors and can include disorders like depression, anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and PTSD.

2. Duration and Stability

• Personality Disorders: Typically emerge during late adolescence or early adulthood in the United States and persist throughout life. A diagnosis of a personality disorder requires identification of stable patterns of dysfunction that rarely fluctuate significantly over time.
• Mental Health Disorders: These can occur at any age and often involve episodic symptoms. For example, mood disorders like depression or bipolar disorder may feature periods of remission between episodes.

3. Impact on Functioning

• Personality Disorders: Primarily affect close relationships with family members due to disruptive patterns of behavior and cognition. For instance, individuals with NPD may struggle with empathy and exploit others for personal gain.
• Mental Health Disorders: Often impair emotional regulation, cognitive abilities, or physical health. For example, depression can lead to fatigue, loss of interest in activities, and difficulty concentrating.

4. Treatment Approaches

• Personality Disorders: The right treatment typically requires treatment options and long-term psychotherapy, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), individual therapy, group therapy, to address ingrained behavioral patterns and family therapy. Medications may be used to manage specific symptoms but are not the primary mode of treatment.
• Mental Health Disorders: Often treated with a combination of medication management (e.g., antidepressants for depression or antipsychotics for schizophrenia) and short-term therapy to manage episodic symptoms, including access to mental health treatment.

What are the Similarities of Personality Disorders?

Despite their differences, personality disorders and mental health disorders share some common features, including significant sex differences, as noted in the national epidemiological survey:

• Both can involve emotional dysregulation that impacts daily functioning. For example, individuals with major depressive disorder may experience persistent sadness while those with ASPD may exhibit impulsive aggression, and some may also struggle with a substance use disorder and related conditions.
• Both require professional intervention from a mental health professional provider for the management of medical history and treatment of mental health problems, including considering possible causes of the symptoms.

Conclusion

The distinction between personality disorders and mental health disorders lies in their nature, duration, impact on functioning, and treatment approaches. Personality disorders represent enduring patterns of maladaptive behavior and significant distress that affect relationships and self-perception over a lifetime. In contrast, mental health disorders often involve episodic disruptions in mood or thought processes that can be managed more effectively with medication and therapy. Understanding these differences is essential for tailoring treatment plans to individual needs.

Resource Links

Prevalence, correlates, disability, and comorbidity of DSM-IV borderline personality disorder: results from the Wave 2 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions

Time-to-Attainment of Recovery from Borderline Personality Disorder and Its Stability: A 10-year Prospective Follow-up Study

Hallucinations in borderline personality disorder: Prevalence, characteristics and associations with comorbid symptoms and disorders

BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER