Personality disorder refers to a type of mental health problem where your attitudes, beliefs and behaviours cause you long-term problems in your life, often across a variety of domains, including your relationships, your work life and your ability to cope with challenging situations. If you are suffering from a personality disorder you are likely to differ significantly from many people in the way that you think, feel and relate to others. You may experience difficulties in how you think about yourself and others, making it difficult to relate to others which at times may result in extreme emotions and self-destructive behaviours.
Personality disorders typically emerge in adolescence and continue into adulthood, but are largely thought to develop from one’s early life experiences, particularly early attachment relationships. There are different types of personality disorder, with the most common being Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). BPD may also be referred to as Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder (EUPD).
Common symptoms of BPD are:
- Feeling very worried about people abandoning you or rejecting (and acting with desperation if they do)
- Experiencing very intense emotions that last from a few hours to a few days and can change quickly (for example, from feeling very happy and relaxed in the morning to feeling low and sad in the afternoon).
- Not having a strong sense of who you are, with it often changing depending on who you’re with
- Difficulties making and keeping stable relationships.
- Acting impulsively and doing things that could harm you (such as promiscuous sexual encounters or using drugs).
- Self-harm and/or suicidal thoughts.
- Difficulties managing anger.
- Feeling empty and lonely.
- Feeling paranoid and/or having psychotic experiences.
Other personality disorders which you may have heard of include Anti-Social Personality Disorder, Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Paranoid Personality Disorder.
Assessment & Treatment for Personality Disorder
Dr Rose has extensive specialist expertise in the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of Personality Disorder having worked in specialist NHS services for offenders with personality disorder where she regularly works with individuals who have severe Borderline Personality Disorder, Anti-Social Personality Disorder and Narcissistic Personality Disorder amongst others. Based on this expertise, in private practice she is able to provide assessment for personality disorder which typically includes psychometric testing and clinical interview over 2-3 sessions.
The first-line treatment for personality disorders is psychological therapy. Dr Rose has completed specialist training in Mentalization Based Treatment (MBT) and Schema Therapy (and is a Certified Schema Therapist) which are evidence-based therapies for the treatment of personality disorder.
If it is considered that you may additionally benefit from pharmacological treatment to also support symptoms relating to personality disorder e.g. mood swings, Dr Rose is also able to refer you for a psychiatric review and onward referral if necessary.
Contact Dr Rose now to arrange a consultation for support with personality difficulties. Email: [email protected] or call on: 07393 488534.
In this video Dr Jeffrey Young, explains more about Schema Therapy for the treatment of Personality Disorder:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfiRDG0oFoQ&list=PL0fuItB_lPFrFR_tq4xyv9Zgfdo8hF7NO
In this video Borderline Personality Disorder and Mentalization Based Treatment are discussed:
