Unpopular opinion of personality disorders?

Personality disorders are also physical issues. They are related to neuronal pathways. That these pathways are created as adaptations to environmental triggers, and continue to fire long after they are not useful, does not mean they aren't "real".

Take for instance schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is also a triggered condition. You have a certain genetic vulnerability, which affects how some parts of the brain will behave, but in order to schizophrenia to develop you still need some serious emotional triggers and communication breakdowns in the environment. Just like being genetically predisposed to, say, high blood pressure doesn't necessarily mean you will have it.

All this is to say that, yes, behaviours are a choice, but to see personality disorders as "a flaw in character" is not only simplistic but counterproductive. Essentialist thinking like that ("you are terrible!" instead of "you are doing terrible things") is in fact one of the problems with personality disordered people. Since the 90s we do know that personality disorders that used to be treated as hopeless can get effective treatment if the person suffering them is motivated to change. It's not easy, but it can be done.

Good look treating egosyntonic disorders like NPD or ASPD, though. These people never feel what they do is wrong, so no motivation.

/r/raisedbyborderlines Thread