Personality disorder refers to physical, intellectual, and mental characteristics that manifest when a person has difficulty adapting to their environment, their daily functioning deteriorates, they experience a state of inner tension and anxiety, and they deviate from the expectations of the culture in which they live.
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Personality Disorders and Marriage
Personality disorders can negatively affect marriage by causing communication difficulties, emotional regulation problems, boundary issues, and potentially destructive behaviors. This can lead to conflict, trust issues, and tension within the relationship. Without treatment, these symptoms may increase further and potentially lead to the breakdown of the marriage. There are many different personality disorders.
Paranoid Personality Disorder
In paranoid personality disorder, people experience strong and unjustified mistrust of others, constantly question others’ loyalty and trustworthiness, scrutinize situations very carefully, and often notice details that others may not. They exaggerate the “evidence” of what they think they have detected and spend a great deal of time examining people’s “real” intentions. They are also very sensitive to criticism and often tend to misinterpret situations they find suspicious. The prevalence of paranoid personality disorder in the general population ranges between 0.5% and 5.6%.
Schizoid Personality Disorder
With schizoid personality disorder, people avoid all kinds of interpersonal relationships and display cold behavior when communicating with others. Other people describe them as cold, lonely, and detached—people who cut themselves off from others and show the same affect. Individuals with this diagnosis chronically avoid relationships and lack emotional understanding.
Antisocial Personality Disorder
People with antisocial personality disorder have difficulty establishing positive relationships with others and engage in behaviors that do not meet social norms and values. They may commit aggressive illegal acts toward others (insulting, slaughter, rape). They insist on portraying themselves as innocent, but if necessary, they can act nice and polite until they get what they want.
The core features of antisocial personality disorder include: poor impulse control, low tolerance for frustration and, generally, impulsive actions; lack of concern about the consequences of their behavior, and the risk of seeking excitement and thrill without considering potential dangers.
Substance misuse is present in 80% of patients with antisocial personality disorder. Substance dependence may contribute to the development of impulsive and antisocial behavior. Alcohol and other substances increase aggression and reduce control over behavior.
These patients tend to believe they need treatment. Treatment is sought due to marital problems, work conflicts, or relationship problems. Instead of taking responsibility for the current situation, they tend to blame others.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
These individuals do not tolerate criticism and expect admiration, approval, and praise from others. When their expectations are not met, they become disappointed and their self-confidence decreases. They believe they are very important, successful, beautiful, and so on. A person who believes they are very special also believes that only special people like themselves can understand them. In their relationships with others, they do not want to understand or be aware of others’ feelings. They often seek treatment because it is difficult to adapt to life’s stress and strain.
Dependent Personality Disorder
It is stated that people with this personality disorder were overprotected in childhood and grew up with limited autonomy and restricted initiative. In dependent personality disorder, the person has difficulty making decisions for themselves and may make decisions with others’ advice and support. A person can function only through relationships. If there is no one around to look after them, protect them, support them, and make decisions, they feel insecure and ashamed. Others need to take responsibility.
In this personality disorder, there is a constant fear of rejection and abandonment. They may do things they do not want to do in order to support others. Protective roles are suitable for these people, not for those that require responsibility and independent decision-making. Dependent personality disorder may be associated with accompanying depression and chronic anxiety.
Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder
A person with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder excessively controls themselves and their environment, is perfectionistic, and has rigid rules. In daily life, they are concerned with paying attention to details, rules, order, and organization to the point of forgetting the main purpose of the activity. All of this is highly valued in many societies. However, some people are at the extreme of these traits and, as a result, become rigid, inflexible, perfectionistic, dogmatic, and emotionally inhibited.
Pay Attention to Personality Disorders in Marriages!
They can poison their own lives and the lives of others. It is very beneficial to know personalities in advance before marriage. If you observe signs of problematic behaviors in your spouse, we recommend that you do not rush. Because it is possible that some signs that are seen merely as behavioral tendencies are actually symptoms of an illness.
Personality is the name given to all patterns of behavior that have become habitual, are embedded in one’s structure, and have continuity. Beliefs, thoughts, the way one perceives the world, views about oneself and one’s environment, habits that develop in relation to other people and oneself, emotions, and behaviors constitute a person’s personality.
Personality disorders emerge when a person cannot respond normally to events around them or to life conditions. Such disorders can be seen in human behavior, emotions, thinking, and relationships.
Problems can arise in different ways; for example, if a person has a persistent problem maintaining a close relationship, cannot work, or has difficulties in their career, the possibility of personality problems should be considered. Problems arising from personality disorder often begin with severe stress and tension at the end of adolescence and in early adulthood. A person experiences these problems consistently and over a long period of time in life.
Diagnosing these disorders is not always easy, because the symptoms that define a personality disorder are somewhat exaggerated versions of normal character traits. Other mental and emotional disorders often create confusion and make diagnosis difficult. In general, 70% of offenders, alcoholics, and drug addicts have this condition. People with personality problems are more likely than normal people to commit a crime, attempt suicide, have an accident, and be admitted to an emergency hospital.
