The Neglected Personality Disorders

Do you have one of the neglected Personality Disorders?

More people than you think have personality disorders that range from harmless to hurtful. The ignored Personality Disorders allow many folks to function in a marginally reasonable way.

Look around you. Look in the mirror.People with Personality Disorders are everywhere, if you believe the the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) which said that an estimated 30.8 million American adults, (14.8) meet the standard diagnostic criteria for at least one personality disorder.

Personality Disorders are listed in the DSM, but people with personality disorders aren’t crazy and they don’t have a mental illness. What they do have are ways to make YOU crazy. And they’re really good at it.

Think of it this way:

People with Personality Disorders are not real people. They’re more like alien life forms; an approximation of human beings. They think, see, perceive and behave differently from the rest of us.

A personality disorder is not what someone has. It is what they are. It is the blueprint. Their behavior is as enduring as is the color of their skin. They move through the world stuck in an inflexible pattern. Personality Disorders can’t be medicated, counseled or loved away, though some symptoms with some disorders can be treated.

 

Personality Disorders come in 3 clusters of classifications, A., B., and C., and can range from benign beings whose outlines blur into the background, to those who make the headlines as merciless murderers who love to kill.

I’m focusing on the ignored Cluster A. Personality Disorders because they don’t get much attention or often make the headlines. They’re usually below the radar screen, out of sight, out of mind and neglected, because people afflicted with Cluster A. Personality Disorder do the least amount of damage… that is unless you love them.

There are 3 personality disorders in cluster A:

Paranoid (suspicious)

Schizoid (detached)

Schizotypal (strange)

 A person with Paranoid Personality Disorder suspects others are out to get them. They are preoccupied with doubting the loyalty of everyone, and fear any information they reveal or confide will assuredly be used against them. They read hidden, demeaning or malevolent meanings in ordinary circumstances, and perceive that others are underhandedly attacking their character.

 

When they see or hear whispering, they think they’re the one being whispered about. And when others are laughing, they’re convinced they’re the butt of the joke. They live their lives as if they know others are deliberately insulting, slighting or plotting against them. And they must always be on guard and hyper vigilant, or in some way they’ll be destroyed.  

 

People with Paranoid Personality Disorder can’t be convinced that it isn’t true.

People with Paranoid Personality Disorder persistently hold grudges.

 

If you perceived that that you lived in a cold hostile world, you’d hold grudges and be vigilant too. You’d be alone against the world if you thought the world was united against you. And you’d be isolated and angry.

 

You might even be reading this and think I was taking about you.

And you might drink or use other drugs to dull it all.

And you might even get addicted.

 

Schizoid Personality Disorder has nothing to do with Schizophrenia even though the two disorders share the first 4 letters.

A person with Schizoid Personality Disorder is cold and detached, has shallow emotions and doesn’t want, enjoy or need close relationships. They’d rather be alone.

They’re dull and don’t have much fun.

Because of this, they have few friends.

That’s fine with them.

In striking difference to the Paranoid Personality Disorder, they’re oblivious to what people think.

The hardest and saddest relationships are those in which someone gets romantically involved with a person who has Schizoid Personality Disorder. The relationship can go on for months and years, with the healthy partner holding out hope. But the partner with Schizoid Personality Disorder remains disengaged and can’t meet anyone’s emotional needs.

Many romantic love stories are written around this theme.

Someone with Schizotypal Personality Disorder has odd beliefs, bizarre thoughts, perceptual distortions, and a way of being in the world that interferes with jobs, friendships and relationships.

He’s confusing. His emotions are confusing.

He can be paranoid. He’s uncomfortable in social situations. He sometimes thinks that random events hold special meaning for him. Because of his weird dress and behavior he might be taken for an artist. But not for long.

People with Personality Disorders have fascinated us since biblical times.

Literary characters with Personality Disorders have inspired some of the most important and influential works of our literature. Works of science, music and art are rich with the contributions of those with personality Disorders. Comedies, dramas, mysteries and tragedies that entertain, and inspire us daily, exist because of interesting suspicious, detached or strange characters. Our lives would be poorer without them.

Unless we have to live with one. But that’s another Hub.

Cluster A

1.Paranoid

2.Schizoid

3.Schizotypal

Cluster B

1.Antisocial

2.Borderline

3.Histrionic

4.Narcissistic

Cluster C

1.Avoidant

2. Dependent

3.Obsessive-Compulsive

4.Depressive