Personality Disorders Flashcards
What are the 3 categories of personality disorders?
- suspicious (cluster A)
- emotional and impulsive (cluster B)
- anxious (cluster C)
Paranoid personality disorder
-find it hard to confide in people, even your friends and family
find it very difficult to trust other people, believing they will use you or take advantage of you
-have difficulty relaxing
-read threats and danger (which others don’t see) into everyday situations, innocent remarks or casual looks from others.
Schizoid personality disorder
-find difficulty forming close relationships with other people
choose to live your life without interference from others
-prefer to be alone with your own thoughts
-not experience pleasure from many activities
-have little interest in sex or intimacy
-have difficulty relating to or are emotionally cold towards others.
Schizotypal personality disorder
-no psychosis
-experience distorted thoughts or perceptions
think and express yourself in ways that others find ‘odd’, using unusual words or phrases, making relating to others difficult
-believe that you can read minds or that you have special powers such as a ‘sixth sense’
feel anxious and tense with others who do not share these beliefs
-feel very anxious and paranoid in social situations, finding it hard to relate to others.
Antisocial personality disorder
-put yourself in dangerous or risky situations, often without thinking about the consequences for yourself or other people
-behave dangerously and sometimes illegally (you may have a criminal record)
-behave in ways that are unpleasant for others
-feel very easily bored and act on impulse – for example, you may find it difficult to hold down a job for long
-behave aggressively and get into fights easily
-do things even though they may hurt people – to get what you want, putting your needs and desires above other people’s
-have problems with empathy – for example, you may not feel or show any sense of guilt if you have mistreated others
-have had a diagnosis of conduct disorder before the age of 15.
Borderline personality disorder
-feel very worried about people abandoning you, and either do anything to stop that happening or push them away
-have very intense emotions that can change quickly (for example, from feeling very happy and confident in the morning to feeling low and sad in the afternoon)
-not have a strong sense of who you are or what you want from life, with your ideas about this changing significantly depending on who you’re with
find it very hard to make and keep stable relationships or friendships
-act impulsively and do things that could harm you (such as binge eating, using drugs or driving dangerously)
have suicidal thoughts
self-harm
-feel empty and lonely a lot of the time
get very angry, and struggle to control your anger
-struggle to trust other people
experience other mental health problems alongside BPD, including anxiety, depression, eating problems and post-traumatic stress disorder.
WHEN FEELING STRESSED
-feel paranoid
-have psychotic experiences, such as seeing or hearing things that other people don’t
-feel numb or ‘checked out’ and not remember things very well after they’ve happened (known as dissociation).
Histrionic personality disorder
-feel very uncomfortable if you are not the centre of attention
-feel that you have to entertain people
constantly seek, or feel dependent on, the approval of others
make rash decisions
flirt or behave/dress provocatively to ensure that you remain the centre of attention
-get a reputation for being dramatic and overemotional
-be easily influenced by others.
