The Impact of Personality Disorders on Daily Life: 4 Ways To Manage The Symptoms
Did you know that 6%-15% of people in Canada have personality disorders?
Life events shape unique personalities; while some may be gentle, some might become highly negative and affected.
In this article, we will discuss 10 different types of personality disorders and how they impact our daily lives. If you think you have a personality disorder, check in with KMA Therapy to get some guidance.
What Are Personality Disorders?
Personality disorders are mental conditions characterized by patterns of thoughts and behaviours that occur in the long run and are determined to be abnormal by the culture within which an individual operates.
People with personality disorders may not understand and comprehend emotions, tolerate distress, or get along with others. In addition, they tend to act impulsively, leading to significant problems in their personal, professional, and social lives.
Personality Disorder Types
Knowing about the nooks and crannies of personality disorders helps you manage their impact effectively. Moreover, you must take action immediately if you notice some of these traits from the descriptions discussed below. Let's have a look at some of the major personality disorders.
Cluster A: Odd or Eccentric
Paranoid Personality Disorder
People with such a personality disorder are highly suspicious of others' activities and mistrustful of other people's intentions even without having any grounds to do so. This creates an inability to establish relationships with others.
Imagine you are on your first date, and your date compliments you. If you have paranoid personality disorder, you might feel that their compliment was manipulative or have a negative motive behind it, creating a sense of mistrust in the relationship.
Schizoid Personality Disorder
People with schizoid personality disorder prefer to be alone rather than spend time alone or in social activities. In this personality disorder, the individual shows less interest in forming relationships.
For example, people with this disorder might reject invitations to the parties and weddings of their family members and friends.
Schizotypal Personality Disorder
People with schizotypal personality disorder have strange behaviour or beliefs accompanied by extreme discomfort in social places. You feel much discomfort socially, and connecting with people around you becomes challenging.
For instance, people with this type of personality disorder might feel awkward in social situations, avoid group conversations and feel like people are judging them with no evidence.
Cluster B: Dramatic, Emotional, or Erratic
Borderline Personality Disorder
People with borderline personality disorder feel the fear of abandonment or emptiness, leading to instability in relationships and making it difficult to maintain any sort of relationship.
Imagine that, at one moment, you are in deep love with your partner. However, in a split second, your love turns into anger and a feeling of abandonment, resulting in conflicts.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Narcissistic people might surround you, and you may be unaware of them. People who are suffering from narcissistic personality disorder might ask for a lot of attention and constant admiration. They might also lack empathy for others while expecting complete support and praise from others, which makes a relationship challenging.
Imagine you are sitting with your friends, one of whom recently got a job in his dream company. Everyone is asking about his experience there while one of you, your friend, abruptly interrupts the conversation and starts linking the experience and problem with themselves to grab the attention of everyone at the table.
Histrionic Personality Disorder
Similar to narcissistic personality disorder, histrionic personality disorder also asks for a lot of attention, which is accompanied by overly dramatic emotions and actions which tend to attract the attention of people around.
People with this disorder are often seen wearing clothes that become the centre of attention in a social setting or even engaging in storytelling about themselves to receive praise and attention.
Antisocial Personality Disorder
A person with Antisocial Personality Disorder shows a lack of regard for others' rights, manipulating them, exploiting people or violating laws.
For example, a person with this disorder may engage in dishonest behaviour, such as lying or manipulating people for their advantage and personal gain.
Cluster C: Anxious or Fearful
Avoidant Personality Disorder
In an avoidant personality disorder, there is a feeling of inadequacy and hypersensitivity to negative evaluation, which may lead to weakened personal relationships.
For example, something is bothering you, and you want to talk about it to someone, but you feel anxious about sharing your problem due to the fear of being judged. This behaviour could lead them to withdraw from social settings and leave them alone.
Dependent Personality Disorder
As the name suggests, people with dependent personality disorder are always in need of someone for support. They always need other people to support them emotionally and physically; otherwise, they will find survival challenging.
People with this disorder are even scared of making a tiny decision in their lives, like selecting a restaurant. They will always ask other people to make decisions for them.
Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder
OCD and OCPD are two different things which must not be confused. OCPD is a type of personality disorder In which there is an obsession with perfection and orderliness, which can lead to significant inefficiency and distress in everyday functioning.
For example, one may spend so much time perfecting an office or getting into minute details about a particular project that nothing will remain to finish on time. This might frustrate both you and others.
Daily Life Challenges
Every personality disorder brings unique, practical challenges in every circle of life. Here are a few challenges associated with personality disorders.
Interpersonal Relationships
It is pretty tricky for people with personality disorder to make friends or keep them and deal with their family; all this feels hard to them.
For example, suppose a person has paranoid personality disorder. In that case, you might find him doubting almost everyone about their intentions, which puts much pressure on their relationship.
Workplace Impact
Personality disorders make it even more challenging to survive in workplace settings. Such problems do not go away on their own. Instead, they need to be addressed instantly.
For instance, a fellow with a narcissistic personality disorder cannot take criticism nor be a team player since he believes he needs special treatment. For a fellow who has obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, the lack of perfectionism will frustrate him, and he might be a difficult person to work with.
Social Functioning
Social situations can be like a minefield for a person who has schizoid personality disorder, might want to avoid people at all costs, and prefers to be alone. Others will misunderstand this as unfriendly or too distant.
Coping Mechanisms and Challenges
Developing Coping Mechanisms
For a person with a personality disorder, it may sometimes get too stressful at certain times of life, which leads to the development of some sort of coping mechanism. Not all of the coping mechanisms are healthy for humans.
Let's take the example of a borderline patient with a personality disorder who tends to go out of limits, blowing money, drug addiction, or whatever would allow that person to soothe and handle the pressures built by their extreme and violent emotional feelings.
So, that will be of momentary help, but perhaps it can stir things up within his life and in his health in the distant future.
Adaptive Strategies
Adaptive coping mechanisms may also be promoted, which can be refined with the help of professionals. Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) is one standard treatment to help individuals change their thoughts.
Such therapy works on replacing undesirable negative patterns of thinking to help one cope better. Another strategy is mindfulness and emotional regulation, which is most effective in allowing a person to control their reactions.
Therapy and Support
Therapy can make a difference. It creates an atmosphere where one might reflect and understand the impact of their personality disorder. Moreover, it enables an individual to develop concrete strategies to deal with their symptoms.
Group therapy can be very effective, as the feeling of being in similar shoes with other people sets up a kind of comfort network.
Challenges in Coping
Coping mechanisms are not easy to find. Personality disorders make it very difficult for people to become self-aware, and they do not realize or admit that their natural coping mechanisms are maladaptive.
Also, the stigma of mental personality disorders deters most people from treating the condition because they have the fear of being judged and misunderstood by others.
Impact on Mental and Physical Health
Mental Health Impacts
Several other mental disorders accompany personality disorders. A person affected by a mental personality disorder, such as borderline personality disorder, suffers from conditions like depression and anxiety, along with substance abuse disorders.
All these conditions feed each other, and the conditions that worsen could sometimes act as an initiator and become all the more hassle to live with.
Core symptoms in personality disorders can, thus, impact a person's daily functioning. In borderline personality disorder, it is mood instability; in Antisocial personality disorder, it is impulsivity that is the culprit. Again, these compound into bad decision-making and relationship conflicts, leading to further distress.
Physical Health Impacts
Chronic stress could lead to various health issues, which are frequently associated with personality disorders. Chronic pressure, for example, is one health issue. It can probably lead to cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, or weakening of a person's immune responses.
Some of the lifestyle choices are believed to be associated with a few personality disorders, including drug use to mask the pain caused by emotional pain. It could be causing a whole list of health problems, including problems in their livers and heart conditions, among other fatal, life-threatening situations.
What Are The Symptoms of Personality Disorders?
Talking about personality disorders and their symptoms can get us long list of names because each type of personality disorder has its distinct set of traits. On the other hand, specific generalized symptoms may suggest one may have a personality disorder:
Struggles with Relationships 💔
You might notice it takes time to maintain stable relationships. You can even believe that people do not understand you, or you may do things that are not reasonably expected of you. So, this kind of relationship feels like a considerable balancing act because you do not know what people think of you.
Emotional Instability 🎢
Emotions can act like roller coasters: one minute, burning anger, sadness, or shame, the next minute. Minor in the lives of others yet significant in yours, these things can significantly affect a person's life. It is not easy to go about day-to-day living as feelings change at the flick of a moment.
Impulsive Actions 💥
Acting impulsively might provide a short-term respite, but it often leaves regret in its wake. Impulsive behaviour may include impulsive spending, fast driving, or hasty action without considering potential fallout. Impulsiveness can sometimes get the upper hand and make things a lot more complicated later.
Fear of Abandonment 😟
Although it is never directly said to anyone, fearing being abandoned or deserted might make you anxious or worried about the relationship. The deeper that fear is implanted within, the more one becomes suspicious and feels people are about to leave him. Thus, the reactions people receive are often hard to fathom.
What Causes Personality Disorders?
The causes of personality disorders are complex and multifaceted, involving a combination of genetic, environmental, and psychological factors:
Genetic Influences
Like all other traits, such as height or hair colour, personality disorders have a genetic component. It does not mean that because a first-degree relative has a personality disorder, you will, too, but it does mean you are at greater risk.
Environmental Triggers
Life is difficult because not everyone is born with a golden spoon. Having an abusive or neglected childhood or other extreme stresses can affect personality development, leading to personality disorders. Chronic adversity has been shown to affect personality over a lifetime, and it may contribute to disturbed relationships.
Psychological Factors
How you cope with life's challenges plays a role, too. If a person learns maladaptive ways of handling stress or emotions early in life, these can solidify into more entrenched patterns that might later be diagnosed as a personality disorder.
Who Do Personality Disorders Affect?
Most people diagnosed with a personality disorder are adults because the symptoms are primarily observable and tend to be diagnosed after one reaches adulthood.
Except for antisocial personality disorder, around 80% of those affected show signs before age 11.
In terms of gender, antisocial personality disorder is more common in people assigned male at birth, while borderline, histrionic, and dependent personality disorders are more frequently diagnosed in people assigned female at birth.
How Common Are Personality Disorders?
Personality disorders are not that uncommon and can affect a substantial proportion of the population in the world. The incidence of personality disorders may vary depending on the personality disorder involved.
Generally, personality disorders have different presentations and occur in other people's lives in various ways. This would mean that between 10-13% of the world's population suffer from one of many forms of personality disorders, suggesting the need for developing awareness and outreach resources for such populations.
Treatment and Management
The management and treatment of personality disorders involve multiple approaches to help individuals cope effectively with their condition:
Psychotherapy (Talk Therapy)
Psychotherapy is the first course of treatment for personality disorders. Some of the widely used techniques in this category are DBT and CBT. DBT is generally helpful for people living with borderline personality disorder so that they may easily manage their emotions and further improve interpersonal relationships.
CBT will help change those thought patterns that make one indulge in unwanted behaviour. It aims to develop good interpersonal skills, emotional understanding, control, avoid impulsive behaviour, and build good self-esteem.
Medication
No medication is mainly developed to help people with personality disorders, but most other medicines can improve the symptoms of the diseases.
For example, people may find antidepressants helpful in managing their symptoms of depression and anxiety. People get relief from severely distorted thoughts by the use of antipsychotics, and mood stabilizers can fix mood swings.
Some drugs are used in such cases when a mental illness, including depression or anxiety, accompanies any specific symptom of PD.
Education and Support
It is crucial to educate the patient and their family about the nature of personality disorders. It helps them understand the disorder and set realistic expectations about progress and challenges.
Participating in support groups can offer a community and shared experiences that provide comfort and advice on coping mechanisms and daily living strategies.
Long-Term Management
Management of a personality disorder often takes a long time. The therapy is repeated, and there is continuous evolution and change in the personality. So, over the years, plans have to keep on changing due to different reasons, like changes in conditions or even aging.
Conquer Your Personality Disorder!
If you or your loved ones are suffering from any type of personality disorder, you might want to help them. You can do that by bringing them to the KMA Therapy. KMA Therapy offers specialized therapy and support that you need to regain control and lead a fulfilling life. Connect with us and take a step towards overcoming your personality disorder today!
