What do you all think of personality disorders?

A lot of people think they may have personality disorders, But when it comes to doctors, they make a careful diagnosis. In actualality, people's symptoms fit in to a bunch of different "labels" Do you agree that doctors may be over diagnosing people with personality disorders?

I have many years of experience as a therapist in the mental health field and can affirm the reluctance of insurance companies to authorize treatment for personality disorders. However, in most reports I see, the presence of a personality disorder is noted if the clinician believes it's there.

I don't see clinicians as prone to either under or over diagnose personality disorders, but I am sure there are some practice settings where that happens. Bottom line is that the DSM IV TR spells out the criteria for meeting the various personality disorder clusters, and you use those guidelines in making decisions. If the clinician is lazy and relies on instinct or impression to diagnose, rather than use the criteria, well, that's just not being very thorough

doctors have a name for every personality trait there is. if you have a good personality, you're overly happy and optimistic. if you tend to be down more often, you have depression. if you get mad easily, you're bipoloar

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As a mental health professional with 20+ years experience, now retired, I have to tell you that many "doctors", of whatever ilk (M.D., Ph.D., Ed.D., etc.) truly fail to diagnose personality disorders. The reason for this is that a true personality disorder is a very long thing to change, and it won't get cured with medication, and Social Security and many private insurances won't pay for treatment of a personality disorder, so many mental health professionals are much quicker to give a mental illness diagnosis (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, etc.) simply because they can get more money from the financial pools I've cited above, and personality disorders are harder to "correct". I like to say that I'm very quick to diagnose a personality disorder IF I SEE ONE. And I emphasize that because, as I said above, the big pools of money won't be forthcoming, and many people with personality disorders don't have the money and don't want to spend the amount of money it takes to correct one. And I find it extremely unethical and just professionally cheap to diagnose one way when, in fact, it's something else, simply because one was too "chicken" to deal with the hard facts instead of just drugging someone for some "easy money". God Bless you.

you know why they over diagnose you? because mental and emotional disorders aren't even properly understood. the only person who truly knows what you are going through are other people like you. until doctors fully understand these disorders they can only work with what they think they know about them.

My experience was more that psychiatrists (medical doctors) are reluctant to diagnose a personality disorder. Unlike an affective or anxiety disorder or like schizophrenia, personality disorders are outside of their usual field of work, and are usually not treated with drugs with much success.

A psychologist, a doctor of psychology, thru extensive psych testing, may be able to ascertain whether a person meets the criteria for a personality disorder.

Hello Realm. I think most mental illnesses symptoms overlap. Whether it麓s depression, panic attacks, schizophrenia, bipolar, anxiety, ptsd, etc. Most of them are caused by an imbalance in brain neurotrasmiters and symptoms often include: lack of concentration, lack of energy, feelings of worthlessness, etc. They are usually treated by these meds that regulate the brain neurotrasmiters. I agree that doctors fit them into different labels. It is also important to analyze the spiritual explanation of mental illnesses....they are caused by spirits that attach to the person麓s aura. This is why acupuncture tries to cure mental illnesses from another perspective and they are other things to improve the symptoms of mental illnesses such as yoga. Argentox2@yahoo.com

Yeah thats what scares me. I really do think I have a personality disorder 4 real. I have a lot of symptoms of the borderline personality, but Im afraid they arent gonna diagnose me with the right thing.

Why does this sound like you're asking us one of your midterm questions?