Common features of personality disorders

General about personality disorder

Psychology is a branch of natural science that doesn’t have a theory of everything, because the human mind is complex and emotions are not something that you can measure and calculate with the help of formulas. Apart from this fact, symptoms that appear in cases of personality disorders are very similar and have some common features. People who suffer from one of the personality disorders are usually very persistent in their intentions, heard-headed, and insistent. They are not very keen to obeying the rules and obligations, but they like to associate with people who are doctors, social workers, etc.

Usually people with personality disorder look down on everyone with despise, thinking that they are supreme and better than others. They are unable to have compassion for anyone who has had some bad experience, can’t put themselves in other people’s shoes, often treating a therapist as someone inferior. They only think about themselves and their priority is to indulge to themselves. People who have all of the above qualities and attitudes can be very dull and boring. They like to dominate and take advantage of people close to them. Manipulation isn’t so strange to them either.

Causes of personality disorders

The cause for personality disorder in men is still a mystery to science; some believe that it is a mixture of natural factors and a neglect in a childhood by parents. In a vast number of people suffering from this condition, the early beginning of personality disorder occurs in the childhood. The environment in which they, as children, grew up has a large impact on their psychological development. One thing is certain: if they were exposed to severe trauma, abuse (verbal, sexual, or physical) as children, then some kind of mental disorder will develop.

People who suffer from personality disorder can’t hide their disease, as it reflects on every aspect of their life. They don’t like the person that they confront in the morning in front of the mirror, as they are aware of their condition very well. In many patients suffering from personality disorder, a defensive mechanism appears and they fight against the reality, making them in the centre of the attention. For some of their mistakes they prefer to blame someone else, and due to that, they avoid the consequence. Patients who belong to Cluster B personality disorders are ego-syntonic. Patients with personality disorder don’t experience hallucinations and delusions like patients who suffer from psychoses. It is difficult to spot a person suffering from personality disorder as he/she can be very intelligent and fully orientated managing to blend in with the surroundings.