Personality Disorders
You can get compassionate, scientifically-proven help for personality disorders through telehealth in Texas, Iowa, Washington, Arizona, and Pennsylvania.
Overview
What Is a Personality Disorder?
A personality disorder is a type of mental illness marked by long-lasting, rigid patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting that are very different from what most people expect and cause ongoing problems in relationships, work, and daily life. Personality disorders are not like short-term mood swings or situational stress responses. They are deeply ingrained ways of experiencing the self and the world that don’t change over time or in different situations.
In psychiatry, personality disorders are some of the conditions that are misunderstood and not identified enough. A lot of people go through years or even decades of serious pain before they get an accurate diagnosis. People often mistake symptoms for personality flaws, relationship issues, or other mental illnesses like depression or anxiety, which often happen along with personality disorders and can make the clinical picture more difficult.
Personality disorders are real medical conditions that can be diagnosed and help people with the right psychiatric care and therapy that is based on proof. Most people see big improvements in their relationships, ability to control their emotions, and general quality of life when they get the right help.
Our experienced psychiatric providers at My Psychiatry Care can evaluate and treat personality disorders over the phone in Texas, Iowa, Washington, Arizona, and Pennsylvania.
Symptoms
Characteristics and Signs of Personality Disorders
Personality disorders have different signs and symptoms based on the type, but they all have one thing in common: patterns that don’t go away and make things hard or stressful in many areas of life. To get a clinical diagnosis, the symptoms must be severe, last a long time, and not be better explained by another mental illness, substance abuse, or medical condition.
Self-image that is unstable or skewed
If your sense of who you are is constantly fuzzy, changing, or bad, it can be hard to define your values, goals, or just who you are as a person.
Having trouble controlling your emotions
Strong emotional responses that don't make sense for the situation, trouble calming down once upset, and a low threshold for emotional distress.
Constant feelings of being empty or not worth anything
feeling empty, numb, or like you're fundamentally broken or unlovable that doesn't go away.
Fear of Being Left Alone
Intensive, often frantic attempts to avoid being rejected or abandoned, whether it's real or imagined, even when the threat is small or made up.
Withdrawal or detachment from society
A pattern of avoiding close relationships, choosing to be alone, or feeling disconnected from other people and your own feelings.
Relationships that are intense and unstable
Putting someone on a pedestal and then seeing them as completely negative all of a sudden is a trend that is often used to describe these kinds of relationships.
Behavior that is impulsive or harmful to oneself
Doing things without thinking about the results, like spending money, using drugs, being sexual, driving recklessly, or hurting yourself.
Changing the way you think
Rigid, black-and-white thinking, suspicion of others’ goals, or distorted views of events and relationships that are not aligned with objective reality.
Having trouble with empathy
Persistent difficulty recognizing, understanding, or considering the feelings and needs of others in interpersonal situations.
Pride or Feeling Like They Should
An overinflated sense of self-importance, a strong belief that one is better than others, and the expectation of special treatment without caring about others.
Types
Different Kinds of Personality Disorders We Treat
The DSM-5 lists ten different personality disorders that are grouped into three groups based on traits they have in common. Our psychiatric providers know how to diagnose and treat all kinds of mental illnesses in teens and adults.
Personality Disorder with Paranoia
People with this disorder often don't trust or believe others and think their intentions are bad without enough evidence. People who have paranoid personality disorder are often guarded, don't like to open up to others, and are quick to see when someone is trying to hurt their reputation or character.
Disorder of Schizoid Personality
characterized by a pattern of staying away from social interactions and a limited ability to show how they feel. People usually like to do things by themselves, aren't interested in close relationships, and don't seem to care whether others praise or criticize them.
Personality Disorder with Schizophrenia
Having severe discomfort in close relationships, distorted thinking or perception, and acting in a strange way. This could include strange beliefs, strange experiences, and speech that isn't clear or is based on a lot of evidence.
People with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
One of the personality illnesses that is treated most often in hospitals and other medical facilities. People with BPD have a hard time controlling their emotions, relationships that don't work out, acting on impulse, constant feelings of sadness, and a very unstable sense of who they are. Specialized therapies, such as Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), can help people.
NPD stands for narcissistic personality disorder.
Big-headedness, a strong need for praise, and not caring about other people are all traits of this personality type. People with NPD often deal with a lot of vulnerability, shame, and low self-esteem, even when they don't show it.
Personality Disorder with Histrionics
Excessive emotion and behavior that seeks attention, feeling uncomfortable when not the center of attention, and a tendency to show emotions in a dramatic or theatrical way.
APD stands for Antisocial Personality Disorder.
Having a pattern of lying, acting without thinking, being violent, and not feeling bad about hurting others; not caring about their rights. ASPD can only be diagnosed in people aged 18 and up.
Disorder of Avoidant Personality
Having strong social inhibitions, inadequate feelings, and being very sensitive to bad feedback. People with avoidant personality disorder really want to connect with others but stay away from relationships because they're afraid of being rejected or embarrassed.
Personality Disorder with Dependence
Having a strong and constant need to be cared for, which makes them submissive and clingy and gives them a terrible fear of being alone or being left behind.
OCPD stands for obsessive-compulsive personality disorder
An obsession with order, beauty, and having control over one's surroundings that comes at the cost of being open, flexible, and efficient. Not the same as Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), OCPD needs a different treatment method.
Personality disorders with another illness
Personality disorders often happen together with other mental illnesses like depression, anxiety, PTSD, substance abuse, eating disorders, and more. When you treat all of your conditions at once, you get the best and longest-lasting results.
Causes & Risk Factors
Why do personality disorders happen?
There isn’t just one thing that can cause personality problems. They are caused by a complicated mix of biological weaknesses, bad experiences in early life, and environmental factors that have nothing to do with failure or bad character.
Genetics and Brain Science
Research shows that a lot of personality problems are passed down through families. Having a first-degree relative with a personality disorder or a related mental illness makes you more biologically vulnerable. Neurobiological differences are also consistently seen in areas of the brain that control controlling emotions, impulses, and the threat response.
Trauma and bad experiences in childhood
One of the biggest reasons someone might develop a personality disorder is if they were abused, neglected, emotionally invalidated, or cared for inconsistently as a child. Relationships that people have as kids shape the mental models they use to understand themselves and others as adults.
Problems with Attachments
Attachment problems that are unstable, disorganized, or traumatic in early childhood greatly raise the chance of having personality disorders, especially Cluster B disorders like BPD.
Long-Term Invalidation
Growing up in a place where your feelings, experiences, or thoughts were constantly downplayed, ignored, or punished can make it harder to control your emotions and see yourself correctly, which are two major problems in many personality disorders.
Mental Health Conditions That Occur Together
If you don’t handle depression, anxiety, PTSD, or substance use disorders during your formative years, they can interact with biological weaknesses to make you more likely to develop a personality disorder or make symptoms worse if you already have one.
Things in the culture and the environment
High risk is caused by things like long-term stress, unstable relationships, poverty, discrimination, and not being able to get mental health care during important developmental times. Personality disorders are not caused by the environment alone, but it does have a big effect on how biological weaknesses show up over time.
Treatment
Personality Disorder Treatment at My Psychiatry Care
It is possible to treat personality disorders. A personalized, evidence-based treatment plan helps most people make real progress in controlling their emotions, improving the quality of their relationships, and generally working better. Our mental doctors work together with each patient to make a personalized plan of care that may include:
Full evaluation and diagnosis of mental health issues
An in-depth look at your past symptoms, developmental history, current functioning, and personal goals will help the doctor make a correct diagnosis and a good treatment plan. A lot of people with personality disorders have been given the wrong diagnosis in the past, so it’s important to get a proper review to get the right care.
Management of Medication
Although there isn’t a drug approved by the FDA specifically for personality disorders, many people with these disorders also have other problems like depression, anxiety, mood swings, impulsivity, and psychotic traits. These other problems are often treated with medication. Our doctors carefully prescribe and keep an eye on your medications, making changes as needed to help you stay stable and improve your quality of life.
Therapy Help Lines
Psychotherapy is the most important part of treating mental disorders. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is used for bipolar disorder and emotional dysregulation. Schema Therapy is used for deeply ingrained maladaptive patterns. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is used for distorted thinking and behavior patterns. And Mentalization-Based Therapy (MBT) is used for problems with empathy and self-reflection.
Taking care of co-occurring disorders
Quite a few people who have personality disorders also have sadness, anxiety, PTSD, or problems with drugs or alcohol. Our providers treat all of the symptoms at the same time, because focusing on just one will make the others less effective.
Follow-up and support all the time
Regular visits to check on your progress, make any necessary changes to your medications, work with your therapy team, and give you ongoing mental health support as your treatment changes. Treatment for personality disorders takes a long time but leads to lasting change. We are here for you every step of the way.
Find out more about the mental health services we offer.
Getting Help
When to Get Help from a Professional for a Personality Disorder
You don’t have to wait until relationships are over or functioning has gotten a lot worse before you reach out. You might want to talk to one of our medical providers if:
Consider reaching out if:
- Your strong emotions have been a problem for most of your life and feel hard or impossible to control.
- You notice that relationships that aren’t stable, fights, or feelings of loss keep happening.
- Other people have told you that your responses are out of line or hard to understand.
- You’ve been told before that you have sadness or anxiety, but treatments haven’t helped much.
- You do things that are impulsive or hurtful to yourself that you can’t stop.
- You feel empty, worthless, or like you don’t know who you are all the time.
- It’s been a while since you were hurt, but you can still feel it in your relationships and your sense of who you are.
- You think you might have a personality problem, but you’ve never been officially tested for it.
People from Texas, Iowa, Washington, Arizona, and Pennsylvania, can get telehealth treatment for personality disorders. We take most major insurance plans and treat people aged 6 and up.
Psychiatric Mental Health & Family Nurse Practitioner
Meet Faith Agho, PMHNP-BC
- ANCC board certified
- Licensed in 5 states
My name is Faith Agho. I am a board certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner with 16 years of experience in the healthcare industry. I am passionate about mental health and committed to providing individualized care that recognizes each person’s unique story and needs. My approach is centered on creating a safe, welcoming, and judgment-free environment where you can feel comfortable being honest about what you’re experiencing. At Faith Bridge Behavioral, I believe that seeking help is a sign of strength.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, Texas, Iowa, Washington, Arizona, and Pennsylvania can get a psychiatric evaluation and treatment for personality disorders through My Psychiatry Care. You can make appointments online from the privacy of your own home, so you don’t have to drive to the office.
The goal of treatment is not a cure in the usual sense, but rather a real and long-lasting change. Most people with personality disorders have a lot less severe symptoms, better emotional control, healthier relationships, and a higher quality of life when they consistently go to therapy based on evidence and get the right kind of psychiatric support. Lots of people get to a point where their personality disorder doesn’t define them or stop them from doing normal things in their daily lives.
Yes. A lot of people in their 30s, 40s, and even later in life never get a personality disorder diagnosis. This is especially true for those whose symptoms were mistaken for other conditions or who learned good ways to deal with their problems early on. A full psychiatric evaluation can find a personality disorder at any point in a person’s life, and treatment can make a big difference no matter when it starts.
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