What types of personality disorder are there?
Currently psychiatrists tend to use a system of diagnosis which identifies ten types of personality disorder. These are grouped into three categories.
Suspicious:
Paranoid personality disorder
Schizoid personality disorder
Schizotypal personality disorder
Emotional and impulsive:
Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD)
Borderline personality disorder (BPD)
Histrionic personality disorder
Narcissistic personality disorder
Anxious:
Avoidant personality disorder
Dependent personality disorder
Obsessive compulsive personality disorder (OCPD)
Paranoid personality disorder
The thoughts, feelings and experiences associated with paranoia may cause you to:
find it hard to confide in people, even your friends and family
find it very difficult to trust other people, believing they will use you or take advantage of you
have difficulty relaxing
read threats and danger (which others don’t see) into everyday situations, innocent remarks or casual looks from others.
Many people with schizoid personality disorder are able to function fairly well. Unlike in schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, you would not usually have psychotic symptoms. However, as a result of the thoughts and feelings associated with this diagnosis you may:
find difficulty forming close relationships with other people
choose to live your life without interference from others
not experience pleasure from many activities
prefer to be alone with your own thoughts
have little interest in sex or intimacy
Schizotypal personality disorder
Everyone has their own eccentricities or awkward behaviours. But if your patterns of thinking and behaving make relating to others very difficult, you may receive a diagnosis of schizotypal personality disorder.
experience distorted thoughts or perceptions
find making close relationships extremely difficult
think and express yourself in ways that others find ‘odd’, using unusual words or phrases, making relating to others difficult
believe that you can read minds or that you have special powers such as a ‘sixth sense’
feel anxious and tense with others who do not share these beliefs
- feel very anxious and paranoid in social situations, finding it hard to relate to others.
Antisocial personality disorder
put yourself in dangerous or risky situations, often without thinking about the consequences for yourself or other people
behave dangerously and sometimes illegally (you may have a criminal record)
behave in ways that are unpleasant for others
feel very easily bored and act on impulse – for example, you may find it difficult to hold down a job for long
behave aggressively and get into fights easily
do things even though they may hurt people – to get what you want, putting your needs and desires above other people’s. have had a diagnosis of conduct disorder before the age of 15.
Borderline personality disorder (BPD)
feel very worried about people abandoning you, and either do anything to stop that happening or push them away
have very intense emotions that can change quickly (for example, from feeling very happy and confident in the morning to feeling low and sad in the afternoon)
not have a strong sense of who you are or what you want from life, with your ideas about this changing significantly depending on who you’re with
find it very hard to make and keep stable relationships or friendships
act impulsively and do things that could harm you (such as binge eating, using drugs or driving dangerously)
feel empty and lonely a lot of the time
have suicidal thoughts
get very angry, and struggle to control your anger
struggle to trust other people
experience other mental health problems alongside BPD, including anxiety, depression, eating problems and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Histrionic personality disorder
feel very uncomfortable if you are not the centre of attention
feel that you have to entertain people
constantly seek, or feel dependent on, the approval of others
make rash decisions