Guide To The Major Types Of Personality Disorders

A personality disorder is a condition that causes maladaptive disturbances in an individual's thought processes, emotional processing, and behaviors. The personality disorders have been grouped into three main categories. Suspicious personality disorders are those that impact an individual's ability to trust others. Emotional and impulsive personality disorders affect an individual's decision-making capacity and their ability to regulate their emotions. Anxious personality disorders cause or are caused by heightened levels of anxiety. Even though personality disorders have specific criteria, the individuals who suffer from them can have very different symptom presentations, backgrounds, relationships, goals, and individual experiences.

It's important to understand some basics about the most common types of personality disorder. Get the details now.

Paranoid Personality Disorder

Paranoid personality disorder is a Cluster A personality disorder. Cluster A personality disorders are also commonly called eccentric personality disorders. A patient with a Cluster A disorder tends to seem peculiar or strange to those around them. Paranoid personality disorder is characterized by paranoia and intense mistrust of others even when there is no reason for the mistrust. This is the most essential characteristic of the disorder. Most patients with the disorder begin to show symptoms during childhood or the early teen years. Men seem to develop this personality disorder more commonly than women. While it doesn't have an exact known cause, but researchers believe paranoid personality disorder involves combinations of psychological and biological factors. There may be a genetic link, given that individuals are more likely to develop this condition if they have a family member with a delusional disorder. In addition, early childhood experiences like emotional and physical trauma can influence the development of paranoid personality disorder. Patients with paranoid personality disorder tend to be very guarded, and they believe others are trying to demean or harm or threaten them.

Continue reading to learn more about the major types of personality disorders now.