Personality disorders and borderline personality disorders
What is personality disorder?
A personality disorder is a mental health problem that is often characterised by rigid, structured, repeated patterns of feeling, thinking and behaviour. The inflexible nature of the patterns can cause serious personal and social difficulties for the sufferer and those close to the sufferer's carers. The sufferer believes that their behaviour is appropriate which can make treatment even more challenging.
What is borderline personality disorder?
Borderline personality disorder typically involves unusual and unstable mood levels, black and white thinking from one extreme to the other, chaotic personal relationships, low levels of self-image, identity and behaviour and a disturbance in a person's sense of oneself.
The term borderline was originally employed in 1938 to describe a condition as being on the borderline between neurosis and psychosis. The term no longer reflects today's thinking and the debate to change the name is fuelled predominantly by the stigma associated to the sufferers.
How is personality disorder diagnosed?
Diagnosis must satisfy general and specific criteria.
- Behaviour which deviates markedly from the individual's culture.
- An enduring, inflexible and pervasive pattern of behaviour across a range of personal and social situations.
- The behavioural pattern leads to clinically significant distress or social, occupational and personal impairment.
- The pattern is consistent and lengthy, tracing back to adolescence or early adulthood.
- The pattern is not attributable to consequences of any other kind of mental health problem.
- The pattern is not due to substance abuse or a medical condition such as a head injury.
While borderline personality disorder can manifest itself in children and teenagers, like personality disorder, therapists are discouraged from making a formal diagnosis of anyone before they are 18 years old, due to the nature of adolescence and an evolving personality during this time.
Why does it occur?
As with so many mental health problems, the causes of personality disorder and borderline personality disorder are unknown. Links to childhood trauma, such as verbal or sexual abuse, have been suggested. Genetics, neurobiological factors, environmental factors (such as neglect and deprivation) and brain abnormalities have also been indicated.
Borderline personality disorder is thought to affect 2 per cent of adults, with three quarters of those diagnosed being female. Sufferers can also be prone to substance abuse, depression and other mood disorders.
How Priory can help
Priory has been helping to treat people with personality disorders and borderline personality disorders for over 25 years. We know that everyone's situation is different, which is why we ensure that everyone has a unique treatment plan tailored to their needs.
The type and length of treatment is dependent on the individual's circumstances and the severity of the condition. Some patients are treated as outpatients, which means they come to Priory for hourly sessions with their consultant, psychologist or therapist. Others require a more structured treatment approach which can include staying at one of the Priory hospitals for the duration of their treatment where they take part in the psychological group programme as well as regular sessions with their consultant.
For more information or to request an initial assessment, please call 0845 2 PRIORY (0845 2 774 679) or email info@priorygroup.com
To view a list of the Priory hospitals that can help with personality disorders please click here.
For more support
If you feel you may be affected by personality disorder and would like help or more information, you can ask your GP or contact any of the following organisations:
Personality Disorder Programme
www.personalitydisorder.org.uk
The Samaritans
www.samaritans.co.uk
08457 909090
Priory
www.priorygroup.com
0845 2 774 679
If you are interested in receiving treatment from us, your GP will be able to refer you.