Personality Disorders Treatment in Melbourne, Florida

What is a Personality Disorder?

A personality disorder is a mental health condition that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves. It influences the way individuals perceive the world around them and how they relate to others. These disorders are often marked by long-standing patterns of unhealthy or potentially harmful thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.

People with personality disorders typically experience these patterns consistently over time. The condition does not go away on its own, and the symptoms are often rigid. Without treatment, individuals may struggle to handle everyday stress or maintain healthy relationships, which can create difficulties at home, in social settings, and at work.

The severity of symptoms can range from mild to severe. In many cases, individuals may not even realize they have a mental health issue because their thoughts and behaviors feel normal to them. This lack of awareness can cause repeated conflict with others and, in some cases, lead to unhealthy coping mechanisms such as substance abuse or addiction.

Cluster A

Cluster A group of personality disorders

People with Cluster A: People with personality disorders have strange behaviors and ways of thinking. Among the medical problems grouped in this way are the following:

Paranoid Personality Disorder involves deeply suspicious and mistrusting thinking of others. As a result, people affected by this disorder usually believe that people are planning to hurt or trick them.

If someone has Schizoid Personality Disorder, they generally withdraw emotionally from others. Social interactions don’t interest them much, and they commonly look distant or detached.

Schizotypal Personality Disorder: People with this disorder display strange ways of acting, thinking and appearing. Some people may think in unusual ways, sense things that aren’t there and notice trouble forming relationships due to their unusual habits.

Cluster B

People with Cluster B Personality Disorders often behave in extreme, erratic, and stormy ways. The set of conditions covered in this group is the following:

People with Antisocial Personality Disorder typically pay no attention to other people’s rights and do not feel guilty afterward. Many of them deal with frequent problems with the law and do not respect general social expectations.

People with borderline personality disorder undergo intense feelings and sudden behavior changes and they find it hard to keep relationships and with themselves. They could face feelings of nothingness, mood changes and spells of anger or depression.

Someone with Histrionic Personality Disorder often wants a lot of attention and likes to act in ways that get attention or approval. Sometimes, people pay too much attention to their looks and look for confirmation to feel better about themselves.

People with narcissistic personality disorder believe they are superior, want to be admired and usually have little empathy. They might express themselves arrogantly, critically or manipulatively toward other people.

Cluster C

Cluster C refers to personality disorders in which people mainly experience anxiety and fear. These disorders in the cluster are

People with Avoidant Personality Disorder avoid interacting with others because they are extremely afraid of being rejected, criticized or embarrassed.
A person with Dependent Personality Disorder has a powerful fear of being alone and is afraid to make choices on their own.

People having Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) usually become greatly concerned with rules, orderliness and seeking perfection. Being so involved with social media can hinder their ability to accomplish things and keep healthy relationships in all areas of life.

The Link Between Personality Disorders and Drug Addiction

Being diagnosed with a personality disorder frequently goes along with addiction. It has been shown that about 50% of those with an addiction also have some form of mental illness. Clients with a personality disorder often have a substance use disorder as well.

A variety of factors help make this connection so strong. Sometimes, people with personality disorders use drugs or alcohol to overcome loneliness, calm their strong emotions or increase how they feel about themselves. Taking medication without a prescription can lead to substance abuse and dependence very rapidly.

Having a personality disorder greatly raises the risk, since these individuals may act on their emotions and behave impulsively. If the brain’s control over emotions and impulses is further affected by drugs, the results can be fatal.