Personality makes everyone stand out and different among the crowd. How you react, feel, think, and mingle with others is part of your personality and makes you who you are. A healthy personality is necessary to function in your daily life. Still, some factors, such as stress and anxiety, can damage and alter your personality. 

A slight alteration may not be concerning, but when stress and other factors become persistent, it can lead to a personality disorder, making it difficult to maintain relationships. 

• Personality disorders often start in adolescence or early adulthood.
• Narcissistic traits are more common in men than women.
• Borderline personality disorder has high rates of self-harm.
• People with antisocial personality disorder may have a history of childhood behavioral problems.
• Avoidant personality disorder affects about 2.5% of the population.
• Histrionic personality disorder often leads to exaggerated emotional reactions.
• OCPD is about perfectionism, unlike OCD, which focuses on compulsions

So please read below to learn more about this disorder and how it affects you.

A personality disorder is when a person’s way of behaving, feeling, and thinking deviates from what is expected and can lead to distress and issues with functioning normally. People with this disorder have difficulty relating to other people’s feelings and have a view that differs from others. As a result, taking part in family and social activities becomes quite impossible. 

Personality disorder also leads to limitations and relationship issues, followed by depression and severe anxiety. 

There are different personality disorders, and thankfully, this illness is treatable, so continue reading to learn more about it.

There are many types of personality disorders, and they are grouped into three different branches. This grouping is based on how similar the signs, symptoms, and characteristics are. These three groups are anxious, suspicious, emotional, and impulsive.

Personality disorders with eccentric or odd behavior and thought processes are classified as suspicious personalities. There are suspicious disorders, and they are:

A person who suffers from this disorder remains paranoid and distrustful of others. They constantly think that others are manipulating and lying with no evidence to support their claim. They experience fear, anxiety, hypervigilance, and suspicion. 

Because of this phobia, people have a hard time maintaining healthy relationships.

A person with this disorder feels uncomfortable and cannot relate to others. This may make them appear detached, cold-hearted, and aloof, so they avoid the social contract and form close personal relationships. 

Since they appear isolated, they look for employment that has limited social interactions and also form attachments with animals and things.

Similar to schizoid personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder patients have very few relationships outside their own families. People suffering from this illness find it challenging to understand how relationships develop. 

They struggle to trust people around them, which sometimes makes them socially isolated.
Since they also suffer from social anxiety, eccentric behavior, and paranoid thinking, making friends becomes difficult.

People with this disorder have unstable and intense emotions that can become difficult to handle over time. This also makes them behave impulsively and provides them with an unrecognizable self-image. 

These disorders include:

A person struggling with antisocial personality disorder acts without focusing on how it can affect the surrounding people. This leads to irresponsible decisions, delinquent behavior, and even the risk of criminal activity.

Borderline personality disorder makes the person lose control over their emotions. This can make them experience impulsive behavior, constant mood swings, changes in behavior, and different periods of anger, anxiety, boredom, and intense depression. 

These feelings can last for a few hours or even longer, for days, making it difficult for the person suffering and those around them.

Someone who has histrionic personality disorder feels a constant need for attention and reassurance. People with this disorder need to feel significant continuously, and this behavior affects their thinking and how they act. 

The person may also feel a constant need to be loved, which can lead them to become self-centered, indulge in flirtations, be excessively dramatic, and be selfish as to the likes and dislikes of other people. 

Even though such a person may do well in social gatherings, they can often feel intense stress, leading to anxiety and depression.

A narcissistic personality disorder is very similar to a histrionic disorder; in it, a person needs to feel a sense of power and importance. 

However, it also includes feelings of low self-esteem. A person with this personality disorder may experience jealousy, not regard other people’s feelings, crave constant attention and admiration, and feel superior to others by having an acute sense of their importance, power, and attractiveness. 

They may also get hurt easily and believe that they need special treatment. Such people come off as highly pretentious, arrogant, and prone to risky behavior.

People with anxious personality disorders are very fearful. These disorders are mainly because of a mixture of environmental and genetic factors. There are three types of such disorders, and they include:

A person with avoidant personality disorder avoids interpersonal relationships and any social situations because they feel they are not good enough. They also intensely fear rejection, so they do not approach new people. 

To someone else, these people may come off as extremely shy. Because of feelings of low self-esteem, people with this disorder may develop eating disorders, depression, or even opt for substance abuse.

As the name suggests, a dependent personality disorder is when someone relies on another person to care for them. They become overly dependent on others, create a deep fear of abandonment, invest much of their time and energy into pleasing others, and avoid conflict and disagreement. 

Also, these people are easily manipulated and avoid being alone. People may find them submissive, very clingy, and nonassertive.

People with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder prioritize perfection throughout their daily chores. 

This makes them appear incredibly inflexible, incredibly controlling, unable to complete a task because of the fear of it not being perfect, and uncomfortable when things are messy. Rules make it hard for them to relax, and they cannot pass over duties to others.

Now that you know the different types of personality disorders, you can quickly figure out if someone is struggling with this issue. The quicker you figure it out, the sooner you can start communicating with them and help them get the treatment they need. Once they find a treatment that suits them, they will start getting better, which can benefit them and the people around them.