Personality Disorder Treatment and Addiction

What is a Personality Disorder?

A Personality disorder is a set of characteristics that negatively impact an individual interpersonally. These characteristics can be self-destructive, self-defeating and self-sabotaging. Often, a person who suffers from a personality disorder will experience issues of perception that create problems in school, work and family life.

While each personality disorder has its own unique profile, there are common threads among all of them. Persons suffering from a disorder may have erratic or odd behavior and use substances impulsively or to alleviate unwanted feelings.

Symptoms of Personality Disorder

• Frequent mood swings
• Stormy relationships
• Social isolation
• Angry outbursts
• Mistrust of others
• Difficulty making friends
• Need for instant gratification
• Poor impulse control
• Alcohol and substance abuse
• Delusions
• Compulsive behavior
• Excessive use of defense mechanisms

Personality Disorder and Addiction Treatment

People suffering from mental health disorders often turn to drugs and alcohol to medicate their symptoms. In doing so, their conditions could be exacerbated. The use of drugs and alcohol does not alleviate the personality disorder or cure it. In fact, sometimes drugs and alcohol can create other mental health symptoms or worsen symptoms of the personality disorder. Studies indicate that both conditions should be treated in an integrated way for optimal recovery. The best treatment for co-occurring conditions is inpatient dual diagnosis treatment.