- Are personality
disorders mental illness? That's what I'm going to
talk about in this video. I'm Dr. Tracey Marks, a psychiatrist, and in this channel I talk
about mental health education and self-improvement. If you don't want to miss the video, which you don't, click subscribe
and the notification bell. Today's topic is based
on a viewer question from General Repair. Mr. Repair has asked a couple
of times for me to discuss this and has been very persistent. He even asked that I share his question which I will do in excerpts. Dr Marks, Just checking in with you. A while back I sent you an email about cluster A,B&C personality disorders. Still waiting on that video. I have my alert bell waiting
for that video to come out. I'm excited to see, yet just checking in with
you to see if you made any progress or any plans on putting
it out soon, thanks again. Then he goes on to say: Having bipolar disorder and next episode & hypomania is hell. You don't get along with other people, you treat your family like crap. Do you treat your colleagues like crap and can't keep a job,
your wife is miserable, with you your kids hate you. Most days you feel like
you're better off dead. I am such an extrovert I had
to close my Facebook account because I Donald Trumped
the crap out of Facebook got myself in a lot of trouble
with friends and family which no longer talk to me I have nobody but my wife and kids left. He goes on to say: Having bipolar is like Satan
the devil lives inside of you. There is no escape from
these feelings of depression, anxiety, and these crazy
ridiculous thought, the constant negativity, everybody constantly
complaining about how awful of a person you are. It wears on you. This is by all means no life. No enjoyment. I enjoy nothing. Never happy. Yeah I know what you're going to say, cognitive behavioral therapy. Dialectical behavioral
therapy doesn't work. Medication helps but it's not the answer. I just keep waiting for life to get better but it just doesn't. You're a patron. Thank you, General Repair
for your transparency. There's a lot mixed in with this question. He was commenting on a
video on mixed mania. But embedded in this question
is the overlay of an illness like bipolar disorder on top
of a personality disorder. You can see this with the
mixture of some of his comments like his kids and wife hating him and him Donald Trumping people on Facebook and turning people off. Bipolar disorder which is a mental illness doesn't make you do these things. It doesn't even make people hate you. Your underlying personality
that comes out full force when you're ill, is what
makes people dislike you. So, just to make sure you
understood what I just said, your personality is your hard wiring and it's how you react
to your environment. But if you have an illness like
bipolar disorder or anxiety, those disorders disrupt your equilibrium and can bring out negative aspects of your personality even more. But those illnesses themselves don't make people do things
to hurt other people. So what is a personality disorder? A Personality disorder is a
pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates
from the expectations of a person's culture. That's the official definition. What's inner experience? Let's look at the classic
filled glass example. If you see this as half full and I see it is half empty, we two different perspectives
based on our inner experience. Mine being more negative
and yours more positive. Both perspectives are
still correct though, but they take on different
or opposite tones. Also with a personality
disorder this pattern of inner experience and
behavior must affect two out of four areas: the way you think, the
way you express emotion, the way you relate to people
or your impulse control. Also, the pattern of inner
experience and behavior is inflexible, and you see
it show up in multiple areas of your life. The pattern goes back to late adolescence or early adulthood. And the pattern leads to problems like either internal distress or problems in your relationships
or your work or school. There's 10 personality disorders and they are clustered into three groups based on characteristics that
those personalities share. With Cluster A personality disorders, people appear odd or eccentric. I'm going to use the Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders to
define the disorders. The first cluster A personality disorder is paranoid personality disorder. Paranoid personality disorder is a pattern of distrust
and suspiciousness, these people interpret
others motives as malevolent. Schizoid personality disorder is a pattern of detachment
from social relationships and a restricted range
of emotional expression. So this is the loner who is not
very emotionally expressive. This can be mistaken for a person with autism spectrum disorder. But with Autism Spectrum disorder, the person has
developmental delays as well and they have more severe social problems. Schizotypal personality disorder is a pattern of acute discomfort
in close relationships, or cognitive perceptual distortions, and eccentricities of behavior. This would be the person who may be heavily into
paranormal experiences and they usually don't have
close relationships with people. With cluster B personality disorders the person appears dramatic,
emotional or erratic. The four cluster B personality
disorders are as follows: Antisocial personality disorder is a pattern of disregard
for, and violation of, the rights of others. These people tend to get in
lots of trouble with the law or they chronically break
rules without getting caught. Borderline personality disorder is a pattern of unstable
interpersonal relationships, self-image, and emotional expression, and they have marked impulsivity. This person's life is very chaotic. Histrionic personality disorder is a pattern of excessive emotionality and attention seeking. This is the person who is
very dramatic and extreme. They may appear very superficial, wearing their emotions on their sleeves and considering any and
everyone their dear friend. Narcissistic personality disorder is a pattern of grandiosity,
need for admiration, and lack of empathy. Lack of empathy means that the narcissist doesn't appreciate other people's needs. With cluster C personality disorders people tend to be anxious and fearful. The cluster C personality
disorders are as follows: Avoidant personality disorder is a pattern of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, and hypersensitivity
to negative evaluation. These people tend to be very
anxious in social settings. It can look very similar
to social anxiety. Dependent personality disorder is a pattern of submissive
and clinging behavior related to an excessive
need to be taken care of. Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder is a pattern of preoccupation
with orderliness, perfectionism, and control. A person can have a mixed
personality disorder that's s a combination of a
couple of these disorders. Usually the combination
stays within the cluster, but it doesn't have to. Is a personality disorder
a mental illness? Although these patterns of
behavior are considered disorders and are in the diagnostic
and statistical manual, we don't think of them as illnesses in the same way we think of schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder,
depression or even ADHD. With these illnesses we see
disruptions in brain chemistry that are responsible for these illnesses. But the personality disorders
are patterns of thinking and behavior that just develop with you. We all have characteristics of some of these personality disorders. We call it having certain
personality features or traits. But if you have several of the traits of a particular disorder such
that it causes dysfunction in all of these areas of your life, then it would be considered
a personality disorder. So a person can have
features of narcissism without having the full-blown narcissistic personality disorder. What makes a person have
a personality disorder? We don't know exactly. Some of the disorders run in families. Some of them like Schizoid
personality disorder, are more prevalent in
people with schizophrenia. We believe that borderline
personality disorder may be a product of early
trauma from childhood. Narcissistic personality
is thought to be learned and the product of inconsistent
or negligent parenting. This would be parenting
where you have a combination of excessive praise that is based on the parent's own insecurity. So they're praising you
on what they need to hear in combination with inattention to your real emotional needs. This is how you get the
excessive need for validation. What can you do to help
a personality disorder? For borderline personality disorder, dialectical behavior therapy
is extremely helpful. For histrionic personality disorder cognitive behavior therapy can be helpful. The cognitive portion of the
therapy helps the dramatic histrionic person
realign their perspective to a level that is less dramatic. It also helps them to
appreciate how their behavior serves the purpose of getting attention and helps them find other
ways to satisfy that need. Unfortunately, with antisocial personality and narcissistic personality disorder, there's not much that we have. People with antisocial
personality disorder usually don't want to be helped. The person with narcissistic
personality disorder, they may want to be helped. Just like General Repair is asking at least about this question, because they realize how much the problem affects their relationships. The problem is that it's
hard for them to own that they are the center of the problem and that it's not the
world doing things to them. But even if a person does realize this, like General Repair seems to, the Insight doesn't last that long. Its like a rubber band that stretches out and then springs right back. So, I'm sorry Mechanical Repair. But, I have a feeling
you knew this already. Thanks again for asking this question. I hope you can just keep pushing forward. It could be that over
time as you get older the negative aspects of your personality just kind of calm down little bit. We can see this with
these cluster B disorders that people just burn
out as they get older. And the disorder doesn't go away, but it's just not as
offensive and problematic. Continue to leave comments and questions. There's a lot more that can
be unpacked with this issue of personality disorders. Let me know if you have a
specific question or issue about the other disorders. However, there are a
lot of videos on YouTube about narcissism and so I'm not sure if I want to join the pack
and add yet another video about that but we'll see. Depends on what your question is. So, share the knowledge with other people and see you next time. ♪ I am what I am today
because I did it my way ♪ ♪ Nothing else to say ♪ ♪ In this life or the next life ♪
