Can a person with a personality disorder recognize that they have it?

Question

Or does a person who truly has a personality disorder have the inability to realize it?

Answer 1

If they are not able to recognize it now, they will recognize it later. One is not born a full blossomed man. He gradually evolves from lower level to higher and higher levels until he reaches perfection. Such maturity comes by learning lesson from each of our life episodes.

Answer 2

Unless they are diagnosed, most do not know they have a personality disorder.

They might recognize their behaviors are "not normal," but they do not recognize "they have borderline or narcisstic, etc."

Also, many times, the person does not even notice that their behaviors are "different" because part of the disorder is that they may blame others.  For example, Borderlines use a defensive mechanism called Splitting.  This means they see people all good or all bad.  A person could be wonderful and great one minute and do something that upset the Borderline the next minute, and then the Borderline sees that person as all bad and horrible.  But, they don't see their behaviors because they blame the other person.

Personality disorders are very difficult to have and to treat.

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EDIT:

The person below "Psychology student" has NO IDEA what they are talking about.  Bipolar disorder is NOT a personality disorder...it is a MOOD disorder.   Multiple Personalty Disorder (now called DID) is actually a DISSOCIATIVE disorder.   And Schizophrenia is a THOUGHT disorder and has NOTHING to do with MPD.  

Don't listen to that answer.  The personality disorders are listed as Cluster A, Cluster B, and Cluster C disorders.  And they are PERSONALITY disorders.  There are too many too list, but they range from Borderline to Antisocial to Obessive Compulsive to Histronic, etc.

Answer 3

i realize i have borderline personality disorder.

Answer 4

You use the term "(Personality Disorder" very broadly. In the case of medically diagnosed multiple personality disorder (often accompanied by Schizoprenia) the patient is not aware when they switch from one "personality to the other", and they do often take on the whole "persona"of that perceived person or entity ie reverting to a five year old child's behaviour, that of an elderly man even though they are biologically female and so on. This inability to recognise these transformations as they occur has no solid explanation but scientific studies do show a significant change in certain brain chemicals and also in the case of those patients known to have suffered some form of abuse it can be a coping mechanism to revert unknowingly to these personalities.

On the other spectrum of things some people suffer from Bi-polar disorder and those that have been under constant medical care and the correct medication can learn to recognise when thier personality traits change to a more depressed state and then take the appropriate measures to get help top correct the depression.

There is no one set of "right"or wrong"personality traits and each human individual can have 100's even thousands of personality traits - the diference is they are just that - traits such as always being positive... some people would describe this "trait"as having a "happy disposition".

So ask yourself do you recognise if you are angry, sad, happy, jealous... these are different traits and not disorders as such. that's the difference.

Cheers

Raskel

Answer 5

On their own, most lack the insight and introspection to recognize that they have something of that magnitude wrong.  That doesn't hold for all, but it does for the majority.  Once diagnosed, many can but many also continue to deny.  Personality disorders (borderline, narcisissm, antisocial, avoidant, etc) usually are difficult to live with and hard to overcome.

Regarding Psychology student... he must be failing.  What a chump.  He didn't even mention one actual personality disorder.  Multiple Personality Disorder is now referred to as Dissociative Identity Disorder and it is a Dissociative Disorder, not a personality disorder.  It also is not seen in people with schizophrenia, a biologically based thought disorder.  Bipolar disorder is a biologically based mood disorder.  It most definitely is not a personality disorder.