Personality Disorders
Personality Disorders are pervasive problems in thinking,
feeling, and behavior that make it difficult for an individual
to master life challenges and derive satisfaction from a
broad range of everyday situations. Impairment in judgement
or decision-making, impulsivity, as well as rigidly held
beliefs interfere with learning and integration of feedback,
which would enable a person to improve coping skills and
behave more adaptively in interpersonal relationships and
circumstances.
Personality Disorders (PDs) -- such as Borderline PD, Narcissistic
PD, and Histrionic PD -- can be seen on a spectrum, ranging
from mild to severe. Distortions in perception or interpretation
are based on maladaptive beliefs that are deeply rooted
and tend to be outside of the person's awareness. At one
time, usually in early childhood, certain perceptions, interpretations,
and coping strategies were adaptive, and the best the person
could do at the time, given the circumstances and the person's
psychological state or development. These beliefs, feelings
and behaviors then perpetuate and become more elaborate
over the course of the person's life, and continue to persist
even when they become maladaptive later on, after circumstances
have changed. Without awareness, there can be no challenge
to these beliefs, and thus they continue to be strengthened
by ongoing experiences that are being filtered through the
disorted lens of perception. The first step toward change
is identification of the problem or distortion. Next comes
developing the understanding of the problem or distortion
through further examination or exploration. Following this,
one can then work toward modifying beliefs to be more accurate
and realistic, and also make different behavioral choices
that are more adaptive, leading to symptom relief and emotional
improvement.
Help begins with a phone call.
CTA is a network of experienced therapists across the
New York metro area. We strive to match you with the right
therapist for you, to help you to effectively manage and
resolve issues related to long-standing problems in thinking,
feeling and behavior. To inquire about an appointment, please
call us at (212) 258-2577.
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