- The help you need
Personality Disorder
When we talk about personality disorder, we are referring to character traits that make it particularly difficult to cope with everyday stressors.
There are three subtypes, each with completely different characteristics. The only thing they have in common is that they are dysfunctional personalities. This does not mean that the patient should change their personality, as they obviously have many desirable traits that we would not want to change, but rather that they need help in dealing with a series of specific situations that cause them conflict and suffering. For example: patients may describe what they experience as a distressing “feeling of emptiness”; they may have particularly dependent personality profiles (which causes them difficulties in their relationships); or they may have magnified and overwhelming emotional experiences. The most common personality disorder is borderline personality disorder, also known as “borderline.”
The factors that influence the development of this type of disorder are both genetic and experiential, referring to possible adverse events in the patient’s life, especially during the early years: abuse, traumatic experiences of rejection, being subjected to high expectations, physical complexes, etc.
Depression can vary in intensity, but it always affects the functioning of the person suffering from it. It is common to hear that the person has difficulty concentrating, which reduces their performance at work.
Apathy also affects a person’s self-care, who gradually begins to neglect themselves, sometimes neglecting their appearance, hygiene, or diet. The feeling that life has lost its meaning can take over everything.
Sometimes depression occurs on its own, but it can also be accompanied by anxiety-type symptoms.
- The help you need
Eating disorder
There are a number of personality traits which, when combined with certain environmental factors, can create the perfect “breeding ground” for the development of an eating disorder.
Excessive perfectionism and hyper-demandingness lead to eating disorders that are mainly restrictive in nature, marked by voluntary reduction in food intake due to a distorted body image that pursues extreme thinness. When the personality is characterized by impulsivity or when restrictive behavior has been maintained for a long time, so that the patient is no longer able to suppress their eating needs, binge eating tends to predominate. These are uncontrolled bouts of eating that exceed the normal amount of calories a person usually consumes in that period of time. They consist mainly of sugary and carbohydrate-rich foods. After binge eating, the patient is overcome by feelings of guilt that ultimately lead to purging behaviors, such as self-induced vomiting or extreme compensatory exercise. This disorder is known as bulimia.
