I'm having a hard time trusting this guy. I would never want to go to him for therapy. He is really smooth too. Too smooth.

Recover rates for personality disorders are quite low and prognosis isn't great, but I have a big problem with the idea that someone has a disorder and will just be stuck with it forever because it is part of them. I don't think so. I think we need to allow for the possibility of change, and as long as someone wants to change, they deserve to have help. Now, my T maintains that change and recovery are possible, but she doesn't seem at all convinced that I truly want to change. And maybe that's the problem with personality disorders. One of the characteristics of most of them is that the person who has the disorder is bothered by it very little, although it bugs the heck out of everyone else around them.

Hardly anyone starts therapy because they have a personality disorder, but people with personality disorders tend to have other disorders too, most typically depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. I have a long history with depression, and T says that I have anxiety disorders, although I tend not to notice anxiety that much. I guess I'm used to it. And I have always felt that I would be extremely susceptible to addiction although I have always avoided substances. I am addicted to chocolate, and have many addictive behaviors.

My instructor's point was that we don't really treat personality disorders. We treat all the other stuff that comes along with them - mainly depression, anxiety, and substance abuse problems.