Underrated Personality Disorders
‘Shhh… don’t worry, it’s just a phase.’
‘Just do some breathing exercises and you’ll be fine, it’s nothing too serious.’
‘Are you kidding me? Do you want to opt for therapy? Don’t you know seeking therapy comes across as so judgemental and people might think you are mentally sick.’
These are the preconceived notions that people have about therapy and counselors and mental immunity.
Mental health is the need of the hour and it’s important to differentiate between clinical issues and counseling issues.
Mental health is an ocean of subjects and each drop needs to be scrutinized in detail however, personality disorders are something that hasn’t been put under the radar.
Depression, stress, anxiety is all that we hear, without actively realizing that there are so many more diagnosis.
Personality disorders refer to unhealthy patterns of thinking, behaving, and functioning. It becomes difficult to relate to and read situations and people when the one thing that enables you to think logically is hampered
Disorders don’t necessarily mean just having issues with handling your emotions in a particular situation. They are beyond just emotions and include certain behavioral patterns of the person too.
Personality disorders are taken your early and characterize a person in a certain way. They may arise from social, economical, or cultural expectations that haven’t been met.
Ten types of personality disorders are identified divided into three categories
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Suspicious
- Paranoid
- Schizoid
- Schizotypal
- Anti-social
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Emotional and Impulsive
- Borderline
- Histrionic
- Narcissistic
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Anxious
- Avoidant
- Dependant
- Obsessive-Compulsive
Not going into details of each of the above-listed terms, an individual needs to meet certain criteria that will determine which disorder is he suffering from. He may either match with criteria of one specific disorder or he may match with different criteria of more than one. In this case, he is said to have a multi-personality disorder.
There’s no set cure to completely be treated with such disorders. However, certain medications like anti-depressants may help keep symptoms like stress and anxiety in check.
The counselor may take sessions where there’s a physical exam since sometimes the emotions or behavior patterns may be linked to some physical injury and some in-depth questions are addressed.
Discussions about your feelings and relationships with family and friends and other acquaintances are carried out to know more about your background. This activity helps in studying your surroundings so as to decode your struggles.
Many times people having personality disorders are themselves not aware of their condition which makes it all the note complex.
The foremost thing to not say to someone with a disorder is to make them feel as if they are doing this just to grab attention. It’s the worst thing you could do to close that person even further and make him feel like he’s crazy and it’s something he shouldn’t acknowledge.
Be patient and considerate while dealing with them. Use soft words and bit come off as offending or non-empathetic and judgemental
What’s the most important while trying to walk this path, is to be self-aware and be true to what you are going through. Accept and embrace your troubles so that it’s easy for you to analyze and come out of it. Do not resist therapy and medications and be an active participant in your own care.
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