What Are the 10 Recognized Personality Disorders?

Symptoms of a personality disorder usually develop over time, can range from mild to severe, and may include:

• Frequent mood swings
• Social anxiety and difficulty making friends
• Angry outbursts
• Need to be the center of attention
• Feeling of being taken advantage of
• Impulsivity/difficulty delaying gratification
• Blaming the world for one’s behaviors and feelings
• Not feeling there is anything wrong with one’s behavior 

Specific symptoms of individual personality disorders include:

• Paranoid personality disorder: distrust and suspiciousness of others and interpretation of motives as vindictive or unkind, assumption that people will harm or deceive them, refusal to confide in others or become close to them
• Schizoid personality disorder: detachment from social relationships, restricted range of expression of emotions with others, not seeking close relationships, chooses to be alone, does not seem to care about praise or criticism from others
• Schizotypal personality disorder: Social and interpersonal deficits marked by acute discomfort with, and reduced capacity for, close relationships, as well as by cognitive or perceptual distortions, eccentric behavior, peculiar behavior or speech, excessive social anxiety, odd beliefs
• Antisocial personality disorder: disregard for and violation of the rights of others, not conforming to social norms, lying and deceit, stealing, impulsivity, defaulting on debts, neglecting children 
• Borderline personality disorder: instability in interpersonal relationships, poor self-image, intense emotions, poor impulse control, inappropriate intense anger, feelings of emptiness, suicide attempts
  • If you or someone you know are in crisis, call the toll-free National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The service is available to anyone. All calls are confidential.
• Histrionic personality disorder: rapidly shifting or exaggerated emotions, attention seeking, discomfort when not the center of attention
• Narcissistic personality disorder: grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, sense of entitlement, takes advantage of others, and lack of empathy
• Avoidant personality disorder: social inhibition, extreme shyness, feelings of inadequacy, hypersensitive to criticism, unwilling to become involved with others unless they are certain they will be liked, preoccupation with being rejected, seeing themselves as not good enough 
• Dependent personality disorder: feelings of inadequacy, inability to make their own decisions, submissiveness, clingy behavior, need to be taken care of, avoidance of confrontation for fear of losing source of support, difficulty making daily decisions without reassurance 
• Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder: preoccupation with perfectionism, order and control, at the expense of flexibility, openness, and efficiency; excessive focus on details, works excessively without allowing time for leisure or friends, inflexibility in morality and values

Personality disorders may be caused by:

• Genetics
  • Family history of mental illness
• Environment
  • Childhood trauma
  • Verbal abuse in childhood
• High reactivity (being overly sensitive) 

In order to be diagnosed with a personality disorder, thoughts, displays of emotion, impulsiveness, and interpersonal behavior must deviate significantly from the expectations of an individual's culture. Personality disorders are diagnosed by mental health professionals and are generally not diagnosed until a person is over age 18, because personalities are still developing.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) outlines specific criteria patients must meet in order to be diagnosed, including:

• An enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual's culture. This pattern is manifested in two (or more) of the following areas:
  • Cognition (i.e., ways of perceiving and interpreting self, other people, and events)
  • Affectivity (i.e., the range, intensity, lability, and appropriateness of emotional response) 
  • Interpersonal functioning
  • Impulse control 
• The enduring pattern is inflexible and pervasive across a broad range of personal and social situations.
• The enduring pattern leads to clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
• The pattern is stable and of long duration, and its onset can be traced back at least to adolescence or early adulthood.
• The enduring pattern is not better explained as a manifestation or consequence of another mental disorder.
• The enduring pattern is not attributable to the physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, a medication) or another medical condition (e.g., head trauma).

The DSM-5 also includes diagnostic criteria for each of the individual personality disorders.

Treatment for personality disorders includes: 

• Individual psychotherapy: a first-line treatment 
• Medication: generally used as an adjunct treatment to psychotherapy 
• Support groups
• Patient self-education
• Substance use disorder treatment as needed
• Hospitalization as needed