Disorders where an individual's patterns of behavior and experiences are seen/viewed as abnormal and cause a disruption to their living, thinking, mood, personal relations, or the control of impulses.
Antisocial Personality Disorder results in what is commonly known as a Sociopath.*1 This disorder is defined by an ongoing disregard for the rights of others, since the age of 15 years. Some examples of this disregard are reckless disregard for the safety of themselves or others, failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors, deceitfulness such as repeated lying or deceit for personal profit or pleasure, and lack of remorse for actions that hurt other people in any way. Additionally, they must have evidenced a Conduct Disorder before the age of 15 years, and must be at least 18 years old to receive this diagnosis.
Avoidant Personality Disorder is where a person has an extreme fear of being judged negatively by other people, and suffers from a high level of social discomfort as a result. They tend to only enter into relationships where uncritical acceptance is almost guaranteed, undergo social withdrawal, suffer from low self-esteem, but have a great desire for affection and acceptance. However, they do not want the affection as much as they fear the rejection.
Symptoms
People with avoidant personality disorder are preoccupied with their own shortcomings
and form relationships with others only if they believe they will not be rejected.
Loss and rejection are so painful that these individuals will choose to be lonely
rather than risk trying to connect with others.
Hypersensitivity to criticism or rejection
Self-imposed social isolation
Extreme shyness in social situations, though feels a strong desire for close
relationships
Avoids physical contact because it has been associated with an unpleasant or
painful stimulus
Avoids interpersonal relationships
Feelings of inadequacy
Severe low self-esteem
Self loathing
Mistrust of others
Extreme shyness/timidity
Emotional distancing related to intimacy
Highly self-conscious
Self-critical about their problems relating to others
Loss of self-identity
Problems in occupational functioning
Lonely self-perception
Feeling inferior to others
Chronic substance abuse/dependence
Investment in fixed fantasies
Treatment
Treatment of avoidant personality disorder can employ various techniques, such as social skills training, cognitive therapy, exposure treatment to gradually increase social contacts, group therapy for practicing social skills, and sometimes drug therapy. A key issue in treatment is gaining and keeping the patient's trust, since people with APD will often start to avoid treatment sessions if they distrust the therapist or fear rejection. The primary purpose of both individual therapy and social skills group training is for individuals with avoidant personality disorder to begin challenging their exaggeratedly negative beliefs about themselves.
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is characterized by a pattern of unstable personal relationships, a self-image that is not well formed, and poor impulse control. The person suffering from BPD fears abandonment and will go to any length to prevent this, including threats of suicide and self-harm.
Dependent Personality Disorder is manifested via passively allowing others to assume responsibility for major areas of ones life due to lack of self-confidence or lack of ability to function independently. This leads to the person making their own needs secondary to the needs of others, and then becoming dependent on them. While everyone is dependent on others for some parts of their lives, those with dependent personality disorder are dependent on almost all major areas of their lives, and view themselves poorly, and good only as extensions of others.
Histrionic Personality Disorder is characterized by a person who is always calling attention to them self and being overly dramatic. They are overly dramatic, and minor situations can cause wild swings in emotions. They easily become bored with normal routines, and crave new, novel situations and excitement. In relationships, they form bonds quickly, but the relationships are often shallow, with the person demanding increasing amounts of attention.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder is a disorder in which a person has a grandiose self-importance, preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, a driven desire for attention and admiration, an intolerance of criticism, and disturbed self-centered interpersonal relations. They are often referred to as being conceited. They generally have a low self-esteem, as well. They act selfish interpersonally, with a sense of entitlement.
Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder is characterized by a person who has a decreased ability to show warm and tender emotions, a perfectionism that decreases the ability to see the larger picture, difficulty in doing things anyway but their own, and an excessive devotion to work, as well as indecisiveness. Essentially, everything must be just right, and nothing can be left to chance.
Paranoid Personality Disorder essentially is an ongoing, unbased suspiciousness and distrust of people. Along with this, the person suffering from PPD is emotionally detached. In order to have this diagnosis, the person would have to have seen others as having malevolent intentions, by early adulthood in different situations, as indicated by a number of different factors. These factors include: suspicion that others are exploiting, or deceiving them, that others may not be loyal or trustworthy, believes there are threats or attacks on their character in innocent statements that others do not see, and bears persistent grudges. Additionally, this is not a diagnosis which would be used if the person also has Paranoid Schizophrenia, a separate diagnosis, for example, among other diagnosis which would exclude it.
This is reserved for disorders that do not fit into the other personality disorder categories. People with features of more than one personality disorder but without the complete criteria of any one disorder can be assigned this disorder. Examples also include passive-aggressive personality disorder, depressive personality disorder, and people that display a particular trait such as sadism or masochism are assigned this disorder.
A person with Schizoid Personality Disorder has minimal social relationships, expresses few emotions (especially those of warmth and tenderness), and appears to not care about the praise or criticism of others. They appear absentminded and aloof, but are actually very shy. While they do not do well while in contact in groups, they may excel when placed in positions where they have minimal contact with others.
Schizotypal Personality Disorder is marked by a lack of, and reduced capacity
for, social and interpersonal relationships. The person with this disorder also
has cognitive distortions and eccentricities of behavior. They often have magical
thinking (if I think this, I can make that happen), paranoia, and other seemingly
strange thoughts. They may talk to themselves, dress inappropriately, and are
very sensitive to criticism.