"Personality Disorder" Website Support for Sufferers.

[Alan J]

Dear All,

This is not a recomendation, as I have not had the opportunity to fully digest the contents of the web site but, in so far as I am aware, this is the first UK based web site offering support for people who have been diagnosed with a "personality disorder" condition.

From my experience this diagnosis is so open to "interpretation" as to make it open to widespread misdiagnosis, abuse, and confusion.

Sadly a number of clinicians and treatment providers define a "personality disorder" as de-facto an untreatable condition. Further this serves to justify, in some instances, it being regarded as not only 'untreatable' (eg 'curable') but also clinically unmaneagable. I am aware of this diagnosis having been deployed as justification for refusing treatment for drug & alcohol use, dependance, on the basis that such patients are impossible to work with, etc,etc.

Anyway, I must drop this thread for now as I have case work to attend to.

That said, I hope to return to this thread later and go into some of the concerns I have regarding this diagnosis and the manner in which I fear it has been misused in certain circumstances and other problems.

http://personalitydisorder.org.uk/index2.php?page_id=127

Best, Alan J.

[Jim]

This has always been an area that has fascinated me.  Good site by the way Al- has some quite useable definitions.  Personality disorder has often been linked with drug use.  Whilst I think there is a high incidence of drug and alcohol use amongst some categories of personality disorder I do not believe it works the other way round.  The majority of people who are drug dependent do not have personality disorders (I was going to say vast majority but this site says the 10% of the whole population has some sort of personality disorder).  I have always felt, and no-one has ever researched this to my knowledge, the the diagnosis is artificially high amongst dependent and 'chaotic' drug users because the lifestyle that goes along with it tends to mimic the traits associated with a personality disorder.  However, in my experience, if the dependency is successfully treated  in the majority of cases those symptoms of personality disorder disappear.   This would be easy to research by a longitudinal study assessing people for personality disorder as they enter treatment and following them up at regular intervals over the next few years.

going back to this site.  Some of the literature is very useful for understanding it and the various categories are really extended versions of personality traits most of us have anyway- just taken to extremes.



 

[wolfie]

"However, in my experience, if the dependency is successfully treated  in the majority of cases those symptoms of personality disorder disappear."

I am very interested in getting an understanding of the details of your research.....How many cases have you had experience of exactly, and can you give the actual number which equates to the majority?

thanks.

[Jim]

wolfie

I just said in my experience.  I said I was not aware of any research.  I may be way out, but when I see statistics sayinf 75% of opiate dependent patients have personality disorders it makes me feel something isn't right.  People do visibly change when they enter treatment, probably the biggest change is being happier and more relaxed and this is usually because they are no longer having to live an extremely exhausting lifestyle. I just feel the research showing these high rates of peosonality disorder may be showing arrtificially high rates due to confusing a lifestyle with a permanent personality disorder.  Can't prove it though.

[wolfie]

I agree entirely with everything you say in your second post, however, I do take issue with your first post because-
1. There is a tendency amongst proffessionals and those who write newspaper headlines to try to put people in boxes with labels in order to lump complex problems together as one simplistic issue. The danger with this one is that it becomes easy to apportion blame for mental health problems experienced by people who also have a drug problem. ...If only they would stop using drugs they would be alright....i.e. it's their own fault. I know that's not what you intended to promote but it is all too easy to give such reactionary people ammunition.
2. Dual diagnosis is hampered by the attitutude of mental health professionals in that they all too often refuse to take mental health problems experienced by drug users seriously. Instead they insist that they go away , stop using drugs, then come bacj if the problem persists.

We know that drug use and mental health can be inter-related and that in some cases you cannot expect to treat them in isolation with any success. drug use brings depression which brings drug use  and so on and so on...

In addition, I was a long term drug user who had amphetamine psychosis 25 years ago and delusional parasitosis 8 years ago due to cocaine/crack. I am now drug free but if I am honest I cannot claim to be firing on as many cylinders as I once did and I have many friends who are in the same position.

This is all very complex and each person is an individual case so we should refrain fron using generalisations which simply confirm the unconstructive stereotyping employed by those who feel more comfortable by putting us in our boxes.

[Jim]

my second post wasn't a contracdiction of my first post, just a clarification of it

[mcdermott]

Jim:

This is how you do it,

First make hole in egg.
Second, put egg to lips.
Third, suck gently.

Hope this helps.