14. Personality Disorder

It’s been about two weeks, and I’m surprised I haven’t been talking more about my major. I’m spending major bucks to learn something new every day about counseling psychology, my future career. I’m all about psychoeducation, so let me lay some education on you.

I love my concepts of mental health and illness class, and it’s probably my favorite class this year. It has really helped to clarify how mental illness is understood and diagnosed in a professional setting. The fourth Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM IV, can be divided up into 5 different sections, each called an axis. Axis 1 can be described as the “principle disorder” diagnoses. This covers depression, bipolar, schizophrenia, psychotic breaks, and eating disorders. Any onset of a discrete mental disease is an axis 1 diagnosis.

But today we learned more about axis 2 diagnoses- personality and developmental disorders. Personality disorders are different constellations of character traits that make a person rather difficult to deal with in daily life. Their thinking is rigid, possibly even maladaptive, and it can affect their academic, professional, and social lives. The people themselves usually don’t think anything is wrong with their behavior. They’ve had these traits since birth, that’s the way they have always acted. But then they face a difficult situation or start to really affect the people around them for the worse, and they tend not to cope as well.

Take for example someone with Borderline Personality Disorder. The hallmark of this disorder is supposed to be emotional turbulence. They often have an uncertain identity, so their values and opinions can change rapidly. Someone they love one day can be in the shithouse the next, and then back to being their favorite person. Feelings of emptiness and boredom can lead to impulsive and risky acts, such as having sexual relationships or using drugs. There can also be frequent outbursts of anger. To top it all off, people with BPD tend to fear being isolated and being alone. It’s difficult to imagine dealing with someone who can be aggressive and clingy at the same time as a friend or coworker.

The other disorder I thought was fascinating was Schizotypal Personality Disorder. this disorder is primarily marked by magical thinking, which includes thoughts about having supernatural powers or strange preoccupations and fantasies. Their emotions are often inappropriate or restricted, and a person can be unusually suspicious or paranoid. The person tends to be socially anxious, with few close friends outside of immediate family members. Their speech can be vague and metaphorical, with their appearance and behavior appearing very strange. I think the reason I latched onto this particular disorder is because I found a fantastic example of a literary figure that has it. Luna Lovegood! Think about it: the bottle cap necklace, having very few friends, and her fascination with Crumple-Horned Snorkacks and other beings that don’t exist, even in the magical world.  I for one applaud Rowling for including someone with a PD in her books. It also goes to show that just because someone has a personality disorder that they can’t be a nice person and/or good wizard.

It is important to note that not every person with personality disorders is the same. Some may express milder symptoms, and there are different constellations of symptoms that can make up a particular disorder. In other words, the person with BPD might not always have angry outbursts, but perhaps they have paranoid thoughts when under a lot of stress. A person must also be over the age of 18 before they can be diagnosed.

I just also want to make it clear that you should NOT automatically think that every difficult person you meet has a PD. The prevalence of PD is… woah, that high? I just checked, and the National Institute of Mental Health said that the rate in America is 9.6%! Really, there’s a chance that one in ten people have a personality disorder? Well it’s still probably a smart bet not to assume that every person you dislike is suffering from a PD.