Personality Disorders

Personality disorders cause unpredictable, often volatile behaviors and emotional dysregulation. If you develop personality disorder symptoms, visit Emily Russ, PA-C, at Prevail Behavioral Health in Appleton, Wisconsin. You can receive expert care for borderline personality disorder and related conditions to help you function better in daily life. Contact Prevail Behavioral Health by phone or request a personality disorder evaluation online today.

What are personality disorders?

Your personality is a unique and complex combination of behaviors, thoughts, feelings, and attitudes. It develops under influences like your experiences, the environment you’re raised in, and genes passed down from your parents.

Views and behaviors can change over time, but most people’s personality stays the same throughout their lives. However, differences in your brain’s makeup destabilize the personality-forming process if you have a personality disorder.

You experience personality shifts that change your emotional responses, self-view, and relationships with others. You’ll likely exhibit highly unpredictable behaviors and have flawed thought processes that make daily life and relationships immensely challenging.

Are there different personality disorders?

Personality disorders have 10 distinct types. Those that share similar symptoms are grouped as follows:

Cluster A

Cluster A includes paranoid, schizotypal, and schizoid personality disorders, which cause unusual thought processes and behaviors.

Cluster B

Cluster B includes narcissistic, antisocial, borderline, and histrionic personality disorders. These variants feature unpredictable, dramatic, or overly-emotional thinking and behavior.

Cluster C

Cluster C includes obsessive-compulsive, avoidant, and dependent personality disorders. People with these conditions suffer from anxiousness and fearful thoughts or behaviors.

What symptoms indicate I have a personality disorder?

Personality disorders cause various symptoms that occur in different combinations depending on which type you have and its severity. Common symptoms include:

• Attention-seeking behavior
• Rapidly changing values and views
• Angry outbursts
• Intense resentment
• Feeling worthless
• Heightened self-importance
• Impulsiveness
• Risk-taking behavior
• Being self-centered
• Disregarding others feelings
• Feeling hard done by
• Ongoing dissatisfaction
• Depression
• Anxiety

These problems usually develop in the late teens or early adulthood. Personality disorders are incurable, but you can manage them with help from the compassionate mental health experts at Prevail Behavioral Health.

What treatments help me manage my personality disorder?

If your provider diagnoses a personality disorder, you might benefit from medications to reduce your symptoms’ severity and manage depression and anxiety. Psychotherapy (talking with a skilled counselor) is also vital.

Numerous different psychotherapeutic approaches are available. Some that can be particularly effective for personality disorders include:

• Psychoanalytic therapy to process trauma and harmful memories
• Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) to teach coping skills
• Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), a specialized kind of CBT
• Psychoeducation so you understand your condition better
• Group therapy, working with other patients that share your condition

After a comprehensive evaluation, your therapist will recommend the treatments they think best suit your needs.

Call Prevail Behavioral Health or book an appointment online today for expert personality disorder care.