Politically Incorrect Leftist

Personalitydisorders are as common as clinical depression, bipolar, and schizophrenia, andcan be as devastating to their holders as are these mor recognized mentalillnessesalthough personality disorders are more overlooked, as theirsufferers seem more normal than those afflicted with depression, bipolar, orschizophrenia. The Mayo Clinics websitegives a good, concise overview of personality disorders, which are classifiedas mental disorders rather than, like depression, bipolar, or schizophrenia,mental illnesses. The Mayo Clinicslink, Personality Disorders, can be accessed here: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/personality-disorders/symptoms-causes/syc-20354463. 2014s state-of-the-art handbook on what iscurrently known about personality disorders, Handbook of PersonalityDisorders: Second Edition (Livesley and Larstone, eds., Guilford Press;available both in hardback and paperback), notes that personality disorders areabout 55% genetic and 45% environmental, and, in line with what the Mayo Clinicstates above, can result both from parents with personality disorders, as wellas abusive or chaotic childhood social environments. There are many varieties of personalitydisorders, as both the Mayo Clinic and the Handbook of Personality Disordersattest, and sufferers from personality disorders can have problems withrelationships, with employment and employability, and with schooling andgraduation. As a sufferer frompersonality disorder myself, I can attest to having struggled over my lifetimewith all of these. As persons withpersonality disorders get older, however, many of their symptoms are attenuatedand they become more normal, though usually with ongoing relationshipproblems (for example, while I now have an intimate network of friends, theyare paltry in number), problems with unemployment and underemployment (again,in my case, although a college graduate, I work a steady blue-collar laborjob), and problems in schooling and graduation (it took me 11 years to finallycomplete the requirements for graduating with a Bachelors degree). Sufferers from personality disorders are alsotroubled by extreme, over-the-top, emotional overreactions (I suffered thesetoo, especially with anger, which triggered angry outbursts).

Whilepersonality disorders were described in the psychiatric literature as early as1938, for a long time they were considered incurable; however, that haschanged, and a variety of long-term psychotherapies have successfully been usedfor treatment (medication is not regarded as effective, except for symptomaticrelief). The Handbook of PersonalityDisorders list several psychotherapies that have proven effective; amongthem are Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy,mentalization, and an eclectic approach that combines techniques from severalof the successful therapies (while the various schools of psychotherapy thatare useful have differing theoretical perspectives, in practice, theirtechniques are overlapping and similar).Personality disorders are also comorbid with other mental illnesses,particularly with depression and bipolar, according to the above-cited Handbook. The point of psychotherapy in treatingpersonality disorders is to enable the patient to see underlying defects inhis/her thinking, and to replace wrong thinking with more realistic thinking. This is a process that involves regularpsychotherapy for a year or two, although in my case, successful psychotherapyhas taken considerably longer, probably becausefor 47 years (1965-2012) the psychiatrictherapy I was subject to at CMHCs was considerably wrongheaded and malfeasant, leavingme chagrined as a desperate, dependent outpatientsomething that did not changeuntil I started in 2014 with a private psychotherapist who used his particularversion of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Asfor childhood social environment as a cause of personality disorders, the ACEstudy (Adverse Childhood Environment), based on a sample base of 17,000 clientsof Californias Kaiser Permanente health insurance program, provides importantclues to the kind of parents who are more likely to have children with mentalhealth issues. Specifically, there arefour kinds of parents who are high-risk for creating such children: parents who abuse, belittle, curse, or beratetheir children; parents who are mentally ill or have personality disordersthemselves; parents who are alcoholics or drug abusers; and parents who havebeen imprisoned, or who engage in illegal activities. In my particular case, both my parents definitelyfell into the first category, and may also have fallen into the second, as theywere both given to over-the-top outbursts of rage that would go on in tiradesfor 10-15 minutes at a time.

However,based on my experience as the holder of a personality disorder, with properpsychiatric treatment, with a stable job and a solid friendship network, evenif small, the prognosis for recovery is solid and strong, even at a laterage. Given the prevalence of personalitydisorders, it is a shame that NAMI and other mental health advocates dontrecognize and educate on them nearly as much as they need to.

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Politically Incorrect Leftist