Personality Disorders

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because while they may seem very well mannered and overall calm, their desires to accomplish something to get the attention from others can put them at risk. Also, as they seek the attention of others, any type of criticism can hurt them a lot. The more they get rejected, the worse they feel. Finally, Narcissistic PD is the same idea as Histrionic PD in terms of what the individual need but they are completely different in the reasons why. A person diagnosed with Narcissistic PD is very egotistical and feel that they are always important. They have a need for attention and wants people to to be envious of them. This causes them to lack empathy and creates a character that is intolerant, selfish and insensitive. There is also something called narcissistic rage which is when the person flies into a sudden reaction of rage and anger (www.psychologytoday.com). As we continue observing these personality disorders, it’s becoming more and more clear why these disorders often create destructive results. With Cluster C, we will observe what I think may be the most common type personality disorder.

When we look at Cluster C, we will see many effects that can probably relate to a lot of us. The common PDs here and Avoidant PD, Dependent PD and Anankastic PD. People with Avoidant PD look at themselves very negatively. They believe they are unappealing and fear that they will be embarrassed or criticized. In terms of interactions with people, they are typically very timid and only interact with people if they feel certain that they will like each other. Rejection from an early age has been shown to cause this disorder. Now with Dependent PD, the person doesn’t have much confidence in themselves. They constantly need someone besides them as they don’t feel capable of doing anything on their own. The fear abandonment which causes them to take every relationship they have very seriously as they don’t want to lose a partner. And finally, the last PD I will talk about is Anankastic PD also known as Obsessive-Compulsive PD. This one is quite self explanatory. Basically, a person diagnosed with this disorder strive for perfection but they are never satisfied. They always want to be responsible and while they are often very reliable, they are incapable of adapting to change well (www.mentalhealthamerica.net). Now that we know what a lot of personality disorders do, it’s time to ask the final question. Which one of these common PDs are found the most often?

Now we know a lot of the different personality disorders that exist in the world. But now, it’s time to see statistically, how common each of them are.

The chart above shows the statistical data that has been shown about the prevalence of personality disorders in community samples of the US (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). Something that I really like about this chart is the fact that it shows five different studies that all took place in different times. This allows us to see if there are any patterns in the percentages each PD impacted on the community. However, the most important information for my purposes lies within the most recent study. Now it’s quite obvious that the percentages for the PDs fluctuate between the years so the results from 2008-2009 may not be the most accurate but they do set a good guideline. From most common to least common, the most common is Obsessive-Compulsive PD, Narcissistic PD, Borderline PD, Paranoid PD, Schizotypal PD, Antisocial PD, Schizoid PD, Avoidant PD, Histrionic PD and the least common is Dependent PD.

It’s really amazing to see all these personality disorders and how severe each effect is. In society, our personality defines who we are and what character people know us by. It’s unfortunate to see people’s roles in society be affected due to them being diagnosed with a personality disorder that they can’t control. If there is one thing we can learn from this, it’s that no matter what type of personality you have, whether you have a disorder or not, just be yourself and don’t let other people change who you are.