Personality Disorders
Thought this would be interesting. Makes you think a little bit.
Don't you feel like you may have some of the disorders mentioned?
Paranoid Personality Disorder
People with paranoid personality disorder have long-term, widespread and unwarranted suspicions that other people are hostile, threatening or demeaning. These beliefs are steadfastly maintained in the absence of any real supporting evidence. Despite the pervasive suspicions they have of others, patients with PPD are not delusional. Most of the time, they are in touch with reality, except for their misinterpretation of others' motives and intentions. PPD patients are not psychotic but their conviction that others are trying to "get them" or humiliate them in some way often leads to hostility and social isolation.
They suspect strangers, and even people they know, of planning to harm or exploit them when there is no good evidence to support this belief. As a result of their constant concern about the lack of trustworthiness of others, patients with this disorder often have few intimate friends or close human contacts. They do not fit in and they do not make good "team players." Interactions with others are characterized by wariness and not infrequently by hostility. If they marry or become otherwise attached to someone, the relationship is often characterized by pathological jealousy and attempts to control their partner. They often assume their sexual partner is "cheating" on them.
People suffering from PPD are very difficult to deal with. They never seem to let down their defenses. They are always looking for and finding evidence that others are against them. Their fear, and the threats they perceive in the innocent statements and actions of others, often contributes to frequent complaining or unfriendly withdrawal or aloofness. They can be confrontational, aggressive and disputatious. It is not unusual for them to sue people they feel have wronged them. In addition, patients with this disorder are known for their tendency to become violent.
Schizotypal personality disorder
Schizotypal personality disorder is characterized by an ongoing pattern in which the affected person distances himself from social and interpersonal relationships. Affected people typically have an acute discomfort when put in circumstances where they must relate to others. These individuals are also prone to cognitive and perceptual distortions and a display a variety of eccentric behaviors that others often find confusing.
People with schizotypal personality disorder are more comfortable turning inward, away from others, than learning to have meaningful interpersonal relationships. This preferred isolation contributes to distorted perceptions about how interpersonal relationships are supposed to happen. These individuals remain on the periphery of life and often drift from one aimless activity to another with few, if any, meaningful relationships.
A person with schizotypal personality disorder has odd behaviors and thoughts that would typically be viewed by others as eccentric, erratic, and bizarre. They are known on occasion to have brief periods of psychotic episodes. Their speech, while coherent, is marked by a focus on trivial detail. Thought processes of schizotypals include magical thinking, suspiciousness, and illusions. These thought patterns are believed to be the schizotypal's unconscious way of coping with social anxiety. To some extent, these behaviors stem from being socially isolated and having a distorted view of appropriate interpersonal relations.
Schizoid Personality Disorder
Schizoid personality disorder is characterized by a persistent withdrawal from social relationships and lack of emotional responsiveness in most situations. It is sometimes referred to as a "pleasure deficiency" because of the seeming inability of the person affected to experience joyful or pleasurable responses to life situations.
A person with schizoid personality disorder has little or no interest in developing close interpersonal relation ships. They appear aloof, introverted and prefer being alone. Those who know them often label them as shy or a "loner." They turn inward in an effort to shut out social relationships. It is common for a person with schizoid personality disorder to avoid groups of people or appear disinterested in social situations even when they involve family. They are often perceived by others as socially inept.
A closely related trait is the absence of emotional expression. This apparent void of emotion is routinely interpreted by others as disinterested, lacking concern and insensitive to the needs of others. The person with schizoid personality disorder has particular difficulty expressing anger or hostility. In the absence of any recognizable emotion, the person portrays a dull demeanor and is easily overlooked by others. The typical person with schizoid personality disorder prefers to be viewed as "invisible" since it aids their quest to avoid social contact with others.
Their speech is typically slow and monotonous with a lethargic demeanor. Because their tendency is to turn inward, they can easily become preoccupied with their own thoughts to the exclusion of what is happening in their environment. Attempts to communicate may drift into tangents or confusing associations. They are also prone to being absent minded.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
NPD is defined as a pattern of grandiosity (exaggerated claims to talents, importance, or specialness) in the patient's private fantasies or outward behavior; a need for constant admiration from others; and a lack of empathy for others.
Individual must fit five or more of the following descriptions:
* He or she has a grandiose sense of self-importance (exaggerates accomplishments and demands to be considered superior without real evidence of achievement).
* He or she lives in a dream world of exceptional success, power, beauty, genius, or "perfect" love.
* He or she thinks of him- or herself as "special" or privileged, and that he or she can only be understood by other special or high-status people.
* He or she demands excessive amounts of praise or admiration from others.
* He or she feels entitled to automatic deference, compliance , or favorable treatment from others.
* He or she is exploitative towards others and takes advantage of them.
* He or she lacks empathy and does not recognize or identify with others' feelings.
* He or she is frequently envious of others or thinks that they are envious of him or her.
* He or she "has an attitude" or frequently acts in haughty or arrogant ways.
Personality sub-types
- Craving narcissists. These are people who feel emotionally needy and undernourished, and may well appear clingy or demanding to those around them.
- Paranoid narcissists. This type of narcissist feels intense contempt for him- or herself, but projects it outward onto others. Paranoid narcissists frequently drive other people away from them by hypercritical and jealous comments and behaviors.
- Manipulative narcissists. These people enjoy "putting something over" on others, obtaining their feelings of superiority by lying to and manipulating them.
- Phallic narcissists. Almost all narcissists in this subgroup are male. They tend to be aggressive, athletic, and exhibitionist; they enjoy showing off their bodies, clothes, and overall "manliness."
Obsessive-compulsive Disorder
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is currently classified as an anxiety disorder marked by the recurrence of intrusive or disturbing thoughts, impulses, images or ideas (obsessions) accompanied by repeated attempts to suppress these thoughts through the performance of certain irrational and ritualistic behaviors or mental acts (compulsions). The obsessions and compulsions take up large amounts of the patient's time (an hour or longer every day) and usually cause significant emotional distress for the patient and difficulties in his or her relationships with others.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a mental disorder with two components: obsessions, which consist of thoughts, impulses, or mental images; and compulsions, which are repetitive behaviors that the person feels driven to perform in response to the obsessions. In some cases, the compulsion may represent a strict rule that the patient must apply rigidly in every situation in order to feel "right." The exact content of obsessions varies from person to person, although certain themes are common. People with OCD experience their disturbing thoughts and images as intrusive and troublesome, but they recognize that their thoughts are products of their own minds.
The most common types of obsessions are:
* fear of contamination (impurity, pollution, badness)
* doubts (worrying about whether one has omitted to do something)
* an intense need to have or put things in a particular order
* aggressive or frightening impulses
A compulsive behavior becomes linked to an obsessional thought because the behavior lowers the level of anxiety produced by the obsessions.
The most common compulsions are:
* washing/cleaning
* counting
* putting objects in a certain order
* repeated "confessing" or asking others for assurance
* repeated actions
* making lists
Histrionic Personality Disorder
Histrionic personality disorder is a type of personality disorder in which the affected individual displays an enduring pattern of attention-seeking and excessively dramatic behaviors beginning in early adulthood and present across a broad range of situations. Individuals with HPD are highly emotional, charming, energetic, manipulative, seductive, impulsive, erratic, and demanding.
HPD has a unique position among the personality disorders in that it is the only personality disorder explicitly connected to a patient's physical appearance. Researchers have found that HPD appears primarily in men and women with above-average physical appearances. Some research has suggested that the connection between HPD and physical appearance holds for women rather than for men. Both women and men with HPD express a strong need to be the center of attention. Individuals with HPD exaggerate, throw temper tantrums, and cry if they are not the center of attention. Patients with HPD are naive, gullible, have a low frustration threshold, and strong dependency needs.
The cognitive style of individuals with HPD is superficial and lacks detail. In their inter-personal relationships, individuals with HPD use dramatization with a goal of impressing others. The enduring pattern of their insincere and stormy relationships leads to impairment in social and occupational areas.
* P - provocative (or seductive) behavior
* R - relationships, considered more intimate than they are
* A - attention, must be at center of
* I - influenced easily
* S - speech (style) - wants to impress, lacks detail
* E - emotional lability, shallowness
* M - make-up - physical appearance used to draw attention to self
* E - exaggerated emotions - theatrical
Credits: Minddisorders.com, wikipedia.com
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