What are Personality Disorders?

A brief introduction to what personality disorders are, from the perspective of someone who had limited understanding before they were diagnosed with two.

I’m going to preface this post with the obvious disclaimer that I am not a doctor, psychologist, therapist or expert in any way shape or form in the area of personality disorders. Since being diagnosed with BPD and OCPD, I have done lots of reading and also explaining what it is to others – so I’ve got a bit of a spiel that I am comfortable is factual, concise and helps me and others understand in layman’s terms what personality disorders are. I encourage anyone who relates to any of this information, or who wants to know more to do their own research, or reach out to a trusted medical professional.

I mentioned in my last post how my psychiatrist helped me understand what having a personality disorder means, but what actually are personality disorders? Psychology Today defines personality disorders as “deeply ingrained, rigid ways of thinking and behaving that result in impaired relationships with others and often cause distress for the individual who experiences them.” Basically, as I understand it – when a group of personality traits starts negatively impacting the way you live your life, you may have a personality disorder. There are ten commonly identified disorders, sorted into three clusters. You can read more about these in detail in the Psychology Today article linked above but they are:

Cluster A – Paranoid personality disorder; Schizoid personality disorder and Schizotypal personality disorder

Cluster B – Antisocial personality disorder, Borderline personality disorder (BPD – also known as Emotionally Unstable personality disorder), Histrionic personality disorder and Narcissistic personality disorder

Cluster C – Avoidant personality disorder, Dependant personality disorder, Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD)

As I’ve mentioned, I have been diagnosed with BPD (along with an estimated 1-2% of Australians according to Head to Health, who also report “about 6.5% of the adult population in Australia live with a personality disorder.” ) and OCPD. I also suffer from high anxiety which Head to Health note can be common to personality disorder sufferers.

Rather than go into any medical and scientific detail, I’m going to link below the sites I found really useful when learning about personality disorders. They are Australian sites, as that is where I live, but I also explored sites from the UK and US so there will be resources local to you if you prefer.

Please comment below if you have any other resources which have helped you better understand personality disorders.

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