Personality Disorder Test

In this article, you’ll learn about borderline personality disorder and how a personality disorder test can help.

Personality Disorder Test

Article Contents

Understanding Personality Disorders

For people with personality disorders, their way of thinking, behaving, and interacting with others goes against what would be expected and eventually causes distress and difficulty functioning in social settings.

Diagnosing Personality Disorders

Each disorder can be tested using a personality disorder test as a diagnostic tool. These conditions typically begin manifesting later in adolescence or early adulthood, and they can become lifelong mental health conditions if not treated properly.

Personality disorders are typically not diagnosed until a patient is over eighteen years old because personality is still developing prior to that age. Most people will keep the same personality throughout their lives unless a traumatic event changes it.

How Common Are Personality Disorders?

It is estimated that approximately 9% of Americans have some kind of personality disorder, and 1.4% were diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Research found that 84.5% of those with a personality disorder also had a least one other mental disorder.1

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What Is a Personality Disorder Test?

A personality disorder test can be self-administered or administered by a professional; however, a proper evaluation and diagnosis must be conducted by a medical or mental health professional. Self-tests, such as the borderline personality disorder self-assessment and borderline personality disorder symptoms test, can be a helpful tool in recognizing various symptoms that may initiate seeking professional help.

What the Assessment Can Diagnose

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) recognizes ten personality disorders, all of which are assessed by a personality disorder test:

  • Antisocial Personality Disorder
  • Avoidant Personality Disorder
  • Borderline Personality Disorder
  • Dependent Personality Disorder
  • Histrionic Personality Disorder
  • Narcissistic Personality Disorder
  • Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder
  • Paranoid Personality Disorder
  • Schizoid Personality Disorder
  • Schizotypal Personality Disorder

Each of these conditions requires a unique treatment and care plan to be effective as they are all distinct and different conditions.

Are Personality Disorder Tests Accurate?

Personality disorder tests can be an invaluable tool for ensuring patients get the proper diagnosis and treatment. Although people should be cautious of self-diagnosing themselves with these tools, they can be useful in helping individuals realize that they may have a mental health condition.

Thus, people should always follow up with their primary care doctor or therapist after taking a personality disorder test or any other kind of mental health assessment that indicates a condition.

What Is Borderline Personality Disorder?

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by difficulty regulating emotions, impulsivity, poor self-image, and frantic efforts to avoid abandonment. People with this disorder are more likely to have inappropriately intense emotional reactions to stressors and self-harm as a coping mechanism.

Symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder

While there are several symptoms of borderline personality disorder, one of the most recognizable is sudden and violent mood swings.

Other common borderline personality disorder symptoms include:

  • Frantic efforts to avoid abandonment
  • Unstable and intense interpersonal relationships 
  • Difficulties with identity
  • Impulsivity and reckless behaviors 
  • Recurrent suicidal thoughts, suicidal behaviors, or self-harm
  • Emotional instability 
  • Chronic feelings of emptiness or feeling that they are not enough
  • Extreme anger 
  • Stress-related paranoid thoughts
  • Low self-esteem and low feelings of self-worth

Complications of Borderline Personality Disorder

Borderline personality disorder is frequently comorbid with at least one other mental health condition. Some of the most common comorbid conditions that affect BPD include:

What Can Trigger Borderline Personality Disorder?

A borderline personality disorder test can help diagnose patients, but there are other factors to consider. No one is entirely sure what causes borderline personality disorder, but research has shown that there may be some connected risk factors:

Genetics

No specific genes have been discovered that irrefutably link to causing BPD. However, people who have a family history of BPD, particularly those who have a parent with BPD, are more likely to develop BPD themselves.2

Environment

Adverse childhood events, such as physical or sexual trauma, increase the likelihood of developing borderline personality disorder as an adult.

Brain

Some evidence indicates that there may be a neurological link in people with BPD. Those with BPD tend to have structural and functional changes in the brain that regulate emotions and impulse control.3

Verbal Abuse

Children who have received verbal abuse throughout their childhoods are three times as likely to have borderline personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, or paranoid personality disorder as their peers who did not.

Culture

Recent studies show that there may be a cultural aspect to personality disorders. For example, in Taiwan, China, and Japan, there are significantly fewer cases of antisocial personality disorders but a much higher rate of dependent personality disorders and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders compared to Western countries.4

Treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder at Iris Healing®

Borderline Personality Disorder test  At Iris Healing®, we understand and acknowledge that each person’s situation and needs are different. Therefore, we offer various treatment options for personality disorders, such as borderline personality disorder, allowing us to create the best personalized treatment program for each patient. The most common forms of treatment for BPD will be detailed below.

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy, also known as talk therapy, is the most widely-used treatment for BPD. The most effective therapies are cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), and psychodynamic psychotherapy.

Medication

There is no specific medication for BPD; however, doctors may prescribe mood-stabilizing, antipsychotic, and antidepressant medications to help treat the condition.

Self-Help Strategies

The long-term goal of therapy for BPD is to help patients learn how to regulate their emotions and learn healthy coping mechanisms, relaxation techniques, and other tools to help them adjust.

Hospitalization

Short-term hospitalization may be necessary in cases of extreme stress, anxiety, or feelings of suicidal thoughts.

Contact Us Today

When it comes to you or your loved ones mental health and wellness, there should be no greater priority. We understand how challenging mental health can be.

At Iris Healing®, we will help you navigate your wellness journey in a positive way, equipping you with the necessary tools and resources to obtain long lasting fulfillment, enabling you to fully regain autonomy over your own life and emotions.

  1. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/personality-disorders
  2. https://www.nami.org/About-Mental-Illness/Mental-Health-Conditions/Borderline-Personality-Disorder
  3. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/borderline-personality-disorder
  4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK556058/

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