Personality disorders, is the condition that I find most difficult to work with. I did not know how many types of personality disorder there where, and that a person may meet the criteria for several different disorders, while a wide range of people may fit different criteria for the same disorder, despite having different personalities. Most people think of people in simple terms such as good and bad, friends and enemies, loving and hateful. Personality disorders are not so simple and people who suffer from them may exhibit behaviours which are sometimes constructive and other times destructive. Over time, this can generate feelings of Fear, Obligation and Guilt in those who come into contact with people who have personality disorder. When the service user with personality disorder arrived at where I worked, I found it hard to understand, how the client thought process worked, their behaviour and how he/she dealt with other people in situations. Her/his beliefs and attitude where different from what I have previously experienced in my life. I found the client’s behaviour unusual, unexpected and sometimes offensive. When it was explained on a training course set up by work, that personality disorders affected how a person thinks and behave, making it hard for them to live a normal life. People diagnosed with personality disorder may be very inflexible – they may have a narrow range of attitudes, behaviours and coping mechanisms which they can’t change easily, if at all. They may not understand why they need to change, as they do not feel they have a problem. 7.2 Identify the sources of support to help improve your confidence in working with the condition.
The sources of support which helped me to improve my confidence in working with the condition, where:-
Doing this course – learning about Personality Disorders.
Going to the local MIND centre - enquiring about the condition.
Internet – Looking up information on web sites regarding this condition and reading the support forums. Talking to people whom have been diagnosis with this condition e.g. a new service user arrived where I worked with the condition.
Training course to help support the client. On the course we learnt that:- A “personality” is the collection of ways that we think, feel and behave that makes each of us an individual. Most of the time, our personality allows us to get on reasonably well with other people but for some of us, this isn't true. A person with personality disorder, parts of their personality make it hard for them to live with themself and/or other people. They do not learn from experience how to change the unhelpful parts of themselves.
My confidence