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One out of every eleven people in the United States are diagnosed with a personality disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Personality disorders are divided into three subtypes called “clusters”. Each cluster has its own distinguishing characteristics, demonstrated by the personality disorders included in that cluster. In total, there are ten separate personality disorders. What is a personality disorder? A personality disorder is a change in the way the brain operates. Personality disorders most often find their origin in childhood, then develop throughout adolescence and adulthood. Many personality disorders are related to episodes of trauma which lead to extreme forms of coping by the brain. People with personality disorders experience difficult in the way they relate to themselves, relate to others, manage their emotions, manage their behaviors, and progress through their lives on  social scale. Cluster A Personality Disorders The personality disorders listed under Cluster A are referred to as “odd or eccentric behavior”. People with a Cluster A personality disorder act and behave in ways which might be deemed odd by other people. As a result, it is difficult for people with Cluster A personality disorders to overcome their behaviors and relate to people in a normal way. Included are:

Ghosting is a modern term for a peculiar occasion which happens in dating. Someone who “ghosts” someone else completely cuts off communication without warning. Often, to the person who is being “ghosted” it can feel like there is also no cause for the sudden disappearance. Ghosting could be a symptom of a mental health condition which complicates the ability to maintain healthy relationships. Mental Illness deeply fears invalidation Some mental health conditions have a deep issue with the perceived offense of invalidation. Invalidation is a way of making someone feel as though they are not valid to you, or as a person. People who have a mental illness which distorts their perception of self and their ego can take real or perceived signals of invalidation very personally and feel the need to retaliate in response. Ghosting is the way that they hurt you while simultaneously protecting themselves, though they hurt themselves in the process. Mental Illness deeply fears abandonment Abandonment issues can inspire long term mental health issues of all kinds to cope with the intense fear of being abandoned, neglected, or rejected. Trauma from childhood and adolescence can cause these deep fears of abandonment which do not go away until they are thoroughly confronted in therapy. Instead of having to face abandonment, someone who has to avoid any threat of abandonment will abandon the situation entirely, causing them to ghost the person they are seeing. Mental Illness creates fact from feeling Delusional thinking run entirely on feeling is a common experience in many different mental illnesses. Rather than see an objective fact, they only see their feelings and run entirely on how they feel. The feelings of abandonment and the feelings of invalidation discard the necessity of knowing whether or not they are real or perceived. All that matters is that the person feeling them feels them and that is reality enough. They act on their feelings instead of acting on a conversation or understanding what is really going on. That is why they turn to ghosting instead of having an emotionally honest conversation. Mental Illness takes everything personally Mental health conditions can create a heightened sensitivity to the actions- real or perceived- from others. Taking things personally is also acting on feelings because someone feels that what they have experienced is personal. They take feelings of abandonment and feelings of invalidation very personally. Coping with a personal offense is not easy for people with mental health conditions because coping with the pain underneath them- like feelings of abandonment and invalidation- is not easy for them. To avoid the personal commentary which could trigger feelings of low-self worth, they will turn to ghosting to eliminate the relationship entirely.

Borderline personality disorder is a difficult personality disorder to understand. The shifting moods, perspectives, boundaries, behaviors, and often times personalities can be challenging for a loved one to understand. Borderline Personality Disorder Can Start At Any Age Personality disorders like borderline do not have an age limitation because there is simply no way to control that. Thought to have roots in significant events of abandonment, the starting causes for the development of borderline can happen at any age. Early symptoms of borderline personality disorder are encouraged to get diagnosed or assessed as soon as possible. The longer borderline personality disorder goes untreated, the more severe and complicated the symptoms can become. Since borderline personality disorder often comes with self-harming behaviors including suicide attempts, it is critical to intervene as early as possible. Don’t believe that it’s too early for borderline to happen in someone. It’s never too early to seek treatment for a mental illness. Borderline Personality Disorder Can Happen For Many Reasons The cause of borderline personality disorder has remained a mystery to therapists, clinicians, researchers, and loved ones. What causes someone to act so irrationally, live with such a vast emptiness inside them, and never be convinced that they are loved? A traditional point of finger is toward childhood, specifically, the way a child related to their parents. However, the event of abandonment which most professionals believe triggers the deep fear of abandonment and associated behaviors in people with borderline, can happen at the hands of anyone or anything. Abandonment could be real, as in a very real case of being physically or emotionally abandoned. Abandonment could also be perceived, making it real to the person who experiences it. Borderline Personality Disorder Is Dramatic Attention Seeking The borderline personality is full of tricks, manipulations, and schemes to try and get the attention of loved ones. More specifically, someone with borderline personality disorder is trying to get validation to soothe their deeply rooted insecurities and abandonment fears. As a Cluster B personality disorder, borderline is categorized as a dramatic personality disorder. Outlandish behaviors, substance abuse, physical violence, verbal violence, and other seemingly dramatic behaviors are not solely attention-seeking, but a need for attention which is deeply dysfunctional.

Narcissistic personality disorder can manifest over time and create abusive, unhealthy relationships when unmanaged. As your loved one goes through treatment and therapy, you can start to establish rules for yourself and for a loved one with narcissistic personality disorder in your life. By learning about them and the way their disorder manifests, you can learn to create healthy boundaries while continuing to love them with compassion.

The interesting challenge about making a generalization as to whether people should or should not take opioid medications for pain management is that no two people are exactly alike. Many doctors are suggesting that opioids do not need to be considered for the treatment of pain until every other method has been tried. Increasingly, studies are finding that more holistic approaches to pain management work in providing pain relief. Opioids can be a last resort medication or prescribed for severe pain. Many other doctors continue to point out the fact that not everyone can or will get addicted to opioid medications. People can have a predisposition to addiction which makes their brains more susceptible to the heavy effects of opioid medications. As the opioid epidemic has revealed, however, people who do not have a predisposition to addiction will still respond in an additive manner to the opioid medications. Part of the reason the opioid epidemic has grown to such proportions is that people were surprised by their developed dependency on the opioid medications. Even more surprising was the fact that the drugs stopped treating pain and when they weren’t taking the drugs, they were craving them. That being said, it is difficult to definitively claim whether or not it is safe to take opioids. When taken by the rules of the prescription for only the length of time prescribed opioids can be effective in managing pain. People are capable of responsibly taking opioid pain meds and not becoming addicted to them. In small doses, opioids can have a profound effect on relieving pain and helping a patient cope with physical trauma, recovery from a surgery, and more. Another question which commonly comes up in regards to taking opioid medications is whether or not it is safe for someone in recovery from substance abuse to take opioid medications. Until the use of opioids is no longer a standard for pain treatment by doctors, it is likely that in the event of a serious accident, physical trauma, injury, or surgery, someone in recovery will be prescribed an opioid. The risk is very, very high for relapse into addiction. Doctors should be made aware of the addiction history and seek out non-addictive alternatives or require careful monitoring of medication management. People in recovery regularly go through surgeries which require them to take the opioid medications without abusing them or relapsing into opioid addiction.