Personality & dissociative disorders

These disorders affect how a person thinks, feels, behaves, and relates to others and themselves. Personality Disorders involve enduring, inflexible patterns of behavior and inner experience. Dissociative Disorders involve disruptions in consciousness, memory, identity, or perception, often in response to trauma.

Personality Disorders

Personality Disorders are grouped into three clusters based on similar characteristics:

Cluster A – Odd or Eccentric Behavior

• Paranoid Personality Disorder: Distrust and suspicion of others without sufficient reason.
  
  
• Schizoid Personality Disorder: Detachment from social relationships and limited emotional expression.
  
  
• Schizotypal Personality Disorder: Discomfort in close relationships, distorted thinking, and eccentric behavior.

Cluster B – Dramatic, Emotional, or Erratic Behavior

• Antisocial Personality Disorder: Disregard for others’ rights, deceitfulness, impulsivity, and lack of remorse.
  
  
• Borderline Personality Disorder: Instability in relationships, self-image, mood, and impulse control.
  
  
• Histrionic Personality Disorder: Excessive emotionality and attention-seeking behavior.
  
  
• Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy.

Cluster C – Anxious or Fearful Behavior

• Avoidant Personality Disorder: Extreme sensitivity to criticism, feelings of inadequacy, and social inhibition.
  
  
• Dependent Personality Disorder: Excessive need to be taken care of, submissive behavior, and fear of separation.
  
  
• Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder: Preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, and control (different from OCD).

Dissociative Disorders

• Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

Previously known as multiple personality disorder, it involves two or more distinct identity states that control behavior at different times, often linked to severe trauma.

•  Dissociative Amnesia

Inability to recall important personal information, usually related to stress or trauma, that can't be explained by ordinary forgetfulness.

• Depersonalization/Derealization Disorder

Experiences of feeling detached from one’s own body (depersonalization) or from reality/environment (derealization), while being aware that these experiences are not real.