P ersonality is a complex and fascinating area of mental health.
We know that personality is a relatively consistent pattern of
character traits that influence how a person interacts with others
and their environment. Overall, certain personality features tend to help
us understand what motivates people. An understanding of personality
helps us be attuned to how different people might perceive, feel and act
in various relationships and situations. Although there is reasonably good
agreement in the scientific community when it comes to what constitutes
normal variation in personality, personality disorder is an active area of
research that continues to attract widespread interest and debate.
Personality disorder can be defined as ‘a pervasive pattern of
maladaptive traits and behaviours beginning in early adult life, leading
to substantial personal distress or social dysfunction, or both, and
disruption to others’. Personality disorder is more common than one
might think and is considerably underdiagnosed. As such, all of us will
encounter people with personality difficulties in everyday life, be it in the
workplace, a sporting competition or a dinner party. It is estimated that
between 7 percent to 11 percent of the Australian population live with a
personality disorder (Project Air, 2014). The impact of personality disorder
is primarily apparent in people’s relationship, work and wider social
functioning.
People with a personality disorder often struggle to manage stress, and
when under stress, their behaviour can lead to high levels of emotional
distress, self-imposed lifestyle restrictions, anger outbursts, high levels
of conflict and impulsive acts – all in the face of life’s usual stressors.
People living with some form of personality disorder can experience
premature death by misadventure, self-injurious behaviours or suicide, and
there is a great cost to society itself. A challenging aspect of personality
disorder is that the person with personality disorder can often have limited
self-awareness and attribute their problems solely to others and external
factors. Often a core aspect of treatment is increasing people’s self-awareness
and range of skills for reducing and managing distress, thereby
increasing their opportunities to identify and positively change their own
patterns to greatly improve their lives.
Currently, major changes are being made to the way personality
disorders are classified. The framework used by the World Health
Organisation (WHO) is called the International Classification of Diseases
(ICD) and is currently undergoing its eleventh revision. When ICD-11 is
published later this year, it will mark the most significant change in the
classification of personality disorder in almost three decades. ICD-11
will move away from the older categorical view of personality disorders.
Instead, ICD-11 will reclassify personality disorder so that it exists on a
continuum from normal personality, to personality difficulty, personality
dysfunction, through to mild, moderate, and severe personality disorder.
By updating its classification of personality disorder, the WHO is hoping
to implement a platform for improvements in scientific approaches to
understanding personality that will lead to more accurate assessments
and diagnosis of personality disorder. It is also hoped that the stigma
associated with personality disorder will be reduced with improved
understanding of personality disorder being on a continuum with normal
pindaramagazine.com.au Pindara Magazine | 33