Personality disorder – Counselling, a better and effective cure

“Oh, yaar, what a personality you have!” Who does not like to be praised and adored for one’s personality-which is not just how you present yourself before the society, but also a reflection of your overall persona: the way you talk, walk, interact and do routine things that qualify you to be called a normal and healthy person. An anti-thesis of all these traits is personality disorder where counselling plays a critical role in rectifying the problem.

Out of Sync!

• Like any other type of mental illness, personality disorder, too, has a serious social and personal ramifications for not only the patient but also people around him- his family, friends and other dear ones.
• The disorder is marked by wavering thinking, feeling and behavior, which is generally found to be out of sync and barely acceptable in a civil society.

Cause & Effect

• Personality disorders can be attributed to genetic, social and environmental factors.
• It is also often blamed on some particular life experiences that may not be traumatic but debilitating if these had occurred during childhood.
• Research has proved that personality patterns such as personality disorders are inherited.
• A person with personality disorder is most likely to have relatives with schizophrenia or disorders similar to that.

Child Abuse

• It has been found that child abuse and neglect can increase the risk of personality disorder in adulthood.
• Children who have suffered verbal abuse are three times likely to have borderline, narcissistic, obsessive-compulsive or paranoid personality disorders after he or she becomes an adult.
• It has been seen that sexually abused children tend to develop anti-social and impulsive behavior as they attain adulthood.

3 Disorders!

There are three broad categories of disorders: Cluster A, Cluster B and Cluster C.

Cluster A Disorder: Paranoid personality disorder, Schizoid personality disorder, and Schizotypal personality disorder. Such people behave in an eccentric way, likely emotionally cut off from others.

Cluster B Disorder: Borderline (emotionally unstable) personality disorder, histrionic personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder and anti-social personality disorder. Such people behave in dramatic, erratic or impulsive ways.

Cluster C Disorder: Obsessive compulsive personality disorder, avoidant personality disorder and dependent personality disorder. Such people are in the grip of overwhelming fear and anxiety. They can behave in a withdrawn way as a result.

Psychological Therapy/ Counselling

• Psychological therapies like group session is found to be helpful
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectal Behavior Therapy (DBT) are two common treatments for personality disorder.

Pharmacological treatment comprising use of antipsychotics, anti-depressants and mood stabilizers also help the patient overcome the shortcomings in an effective way.