PERSONALITY DISORDERS
LET’S TALK ABOUT PERSONALITY DISORDERS Cat MacGregor, Female Enhanced Engagement and Relational Support Worker from the Bluebird Service at Women in Prison, introduces us to personality disorders. Personality Disorders (PD’s) are hugely varied, and like all mental health difficulties they are completely unique to each individual. It’s estimated that around 1 in 20 people in the UK have a personality disorder of some kind and there are several categories of PD’s. Some of the most common are: Emotionally Unstable or Borderline Personality Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Paranoid or Schizoid Personality Disorder.
BUT WHAT ARE PERSONALITY DISORDERS AND HOW DO THEY DEVELOP?
Our personalities and sense of selves develop from when we are born, through our childhood, and into adulthood. Many external factors affect how we come to see ourselves and others. 20 H E A LT H Y F O U N DAT I O N S
ATTACHMENT AND TRAUMA
From when we are born, our caregiver is meant to be our main source of safety, nourishment and connection to the world. If we are brought up in a safe environment where our needs are met, we relate to the world and the people within it in a more trusting way with a general sense that things will be OK in times of difficulty. For some people, however, this process is disrupted and their attachment to their caregiver can become disordered, with their general sense of safety broken. This could be the result of traumatic experiences such as abuse, neglect, witnessing violence, or losing a loved one. These experiences are then programmed into our development and affect how we come to see the world. We now know that trauma has a huge impact on us and can cause the brain to develop in lots of different ways. For example, for some people, experiencing trauma as a child can cause the ‘fight or flight’ part of their brain to become overactive. This is the mind’s way of trying to protect that person, but it can also mean that when they grow up into an adult, they may respond to situations in a reactive and instinctive way. It can be hard for us to think clearly in emotionally stressful situations if our minds connect a current experience to an earlier stressful and traumatic situation.
RELATIONSHIPS TO OTHERS
Attachment difficulties and trauma can also make it harder for someone to regulate their emotions.. This means that someone’s emotions can become very intense and change very quickly in response to difficult feelings because their previous negative experiences have altered their brain to
