Meeting-The-Challenge-Making-a-Difference-Practitioner-Guide

BACKGROUND
Each person’s personality
has a number of different
qualities or ‘traits’; these may
sometimes seem contrasting
or contradictory: a person
can be cautious with respect
to money, but impulsive
when it comes to making
relationships; they might
be very serious and dutiful
at work, but humourous
and warm with friends.
We all have parts of our
personalities that cause us
problems in some situations.
For example, someone who
generally copes well in life
might be inclined to be irritable
and suspicious when they
meet someone new, or feel
anxious when alone.
What is the difference
between having aspects
of your personality which
can sometimes cause
problems, and having
a personality disorder?
The three ‘P’s’
For someone’s personality
difficulties to be considered
a ‘disorder’, those difficulties
must be Problematic,
Persistent and Pervasive.
Think about ‘the three Ps’:
• For someone to be given a
diagnosis of personality
disorder, the individual’s
personality characteristics
need to be outside the norm
for the society in which they
live, to be a source of
unhappiness to that person
and/or to others, and/or to
severely limit them in their
lives. Those characteristics
are problematic.
• Personality disorders are
chronic conditions, meaning
that the problematic
characteristics continue over
a long period of time, they
usually emerge in adolescence
or early adulthood, they are
relatively stable and can
continue into later life. The
characteristics are persistent.
• These problematic
characteristics result in
distress or difficulties in a
number of different aspects
of someone’s life, such as
intimate, family and social
relationships, how someone
experiences the world
around them, their
relationship to themselves
(that is, their inner world),
and in any employment or
occupation that the person
takes part in . They can also
affect the way in which the
individual relates to
potential sources of help.
They are present in most if
not all aspects of the
person’s life. In other words,
they are pervasive.
Diagnosing ‘personality
disorder’ is a task for a skilled
and trained professional.
Labelling someone as having a
personality disorder may have
serious implications for them,
and some people may be very
upset by or disagree with the
diagnosis. If someone is
formally diagnosed as having
a personality disorder, this
diagnosis should be discussed
with them in a careful and
sensitive way. (For helpful tips
see Chapter 2, Why is the
diagnosis so controversial?).
Because of the dangers
of casual or careless
labelling, we would
discourage you from
labelling your clients
as having a personality
disorder unless you are
professionally trained
to do so. It is much
more useful to think
about them as having
complex needs, or
personality difficulties,
and to think about what
those are, and how they
affect the person.
9