Posted by violette on August 30, 2010, at 8:37:58
In reply to personality disorders, posted by emmanuel98 on August 29, 2010, at 21:38:27
> That my fears of loneliness and abandonment and not being cared for are recurrent themes that have not gone away despite 5 years of dynamic therapy and remission of severe depression.
Do you think he was saying you, in some ways, have integrated your illness with your identity?
> I saw a consultant last year who told my p-doc I was the most disturbed patient he had ever seen.
What an awful thing to hear. I am surprised your PDoc even told you something like that...did you get the notes of the consultant?
> I'm kind of disturbed by this tag of personality disorder. I know it's kind of a catch-all term for a whole slew of dysfunctional behaviors, but it freaks me out, frankly.
I don't think the term is useful and that PDs are mental illness too-not character defects-and usually intertwined with Axis I-not seperate. PD constructs don't necessarily have to include (adverse) behaviors necessarily-it can represent inner states. Plus those traits can serve a purpose preventing depression/anxiety/psychosis until someone is middle aged-then they will crash, and then more behavioral aspects come out, such as those related to MDD.
> Have other people been tagged as having personality disorders?
Many people are not assessed for them and might not know they have one. I have traits of several and found that reading about them more comprehensively has helped me a great deal. Also, many people with severe PDs would never voluntarily enter a therapist's office and might be oblivious to psychological problems.
I found people here don't generally like to talk about those aspects of the self. I posted a PD test here not too long ago-1 person aside from me posted their results (not that the test can accuratly attribute a PD to a person-but it can show your current tendencies).
Plus people read those DSM lists, which only represents a manifestation of symptoms of someone wiht the 'extreme version' of a PD. Many people tend to have traits of several and don't fit one or have some strong traits of another but only meet the critiria during a stressful life event, for example. The psychoanalytical literature describing the underlying context of the traits is worth knowing, imo, in order to be in remission from MI.
If you've been in psychodynamic therapy for 5 years, you might think about switching therapists. You seem to have a real good relationship with your therapist, but maybe a new therapist can address things he has not been keen on. Also, psychoanalysis seems to work better for certain PDs or traits than psychoanalytic therapy.
It might be uncomfortable to you to think of that 'label', but i'd consider you fortunate in many ways as i think there are many people with PDs or strong traits of them and don't even know it, so will likely never get better and continue suffering for a lifetime. At least if you have the dx, you can find out how to 'cure' it, and work towards recovery. :)
Always a topic of interest for me.
poster:violette
thread:960556
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20100706/msgs/960644.html