What is personality disorder?

Personality disorder is a mental health condition that can make it difficult to relate to other people, regulate emotions and impulses, and feel comfortable in themselves. It is not uncommon for people living with personality disorder to feel intense distress and anger, feel empty or act impulsively. 

Everyday settings can feel overwhelming or upsetting. Relationships can be particularly challenging for people living with personality disorder. Things that others say or do can feel hurtful and it may be difficult to feel secure in relationships. Sometimes the distress associated with painful feelings may cause the person to engage in self-harm or other risky and damaging activities, in an attempt to control or escape from the intensity of their experiences.

Personality disorder symptoms tend to arise due to unhelpful patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. These patterns usually emerge during adolescence or young adulthood, but it is not uncommon for someone to receive a diagnosis later in life. People with personality disorder are commonly misdiagnosed with other disorders prior to receiving a diagnosis of personality disorder. For instance, it is estimated that approximately 40% of people diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder are actually suffering from borderline personality disorder. Personality disorder can be associated with serious and intense psychological pain, suffering, and instability.

Personality disorder is not the person’s fault; they did not cause the disorder. Symptoms tend to develop due to an interaction between genetic vulnerabilities and adverse, invalidating and sometimes traumatic experiences earlier in life. The relative contribution of each of these factors varies between individuals.