As we saw in last week's installment, personality is the stable set of biological and learned characteristics that define us as unique individuals. This combination determines how each person thinks, feels, and behaves, as well as how they relate to others and perceive themselves. When these characteristics are healthy, the person is able to flexibly adapt to changes in the environment, maintain healthy relationships, and have tools to face life's difficulties. However, not all people manage to develop this flexibility. It can manifest in the way a person perceives reality, the intensity of their emotions, their interpersonal functioning, and their impulse control. For example, when someone is not invited to an event and thinks: “I'm unbearable, nobody really wants me, I always end up alone.” When these characteristics become unhealthy, they can make it difficult for a person to cope with daily life. When patterns of thinking, behaving, and relating become extremely rigid, inflexible, and cause significant distress or persistent problems in daily life, we are faced with what is known as a personality disorder. The goal is to get closer to mental health, lose the fear of these concepts, and, above all, remember that if there is a distress that interferes with daily life, the most important step is to seek professional help. This article does not aim to encourage self-diagnosis or to label those around us. Diagnosis requires the presence of a persistent, inflexible, and pervasive pattern of maladaptive traits that include two or more of the following: • Maladaptive pattern: a persistent pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the individual's culture. • Inflexibility: the person reacts in a rigid way. • Clinical distress: the symptoms significantly affect the person's functioning in areas such as relationships, work, or enjoyment of life, which requires professional attention. • Stability: symptoms usually appear in adolescence or early adulthood and are maintained in a stable and prolonged manner. • Exclusion: the condition is not better explained by another mental disorder, substance use, or a medical condition. For example, if a weekend plan is canceled due to bad weather, the person does not let that ruin their mood for the entire day. Instead, they quickly propose an alternative, such as organizing a movie night at home or advancing a personal project. The author is a psychologist. For this, mental health professionals—psychiatrists and clinical psychologists—are the ones trained to diagnose the possible presence of these disorders. For example, a person with obsessive-compulsive traits can spend so many hours checking a report that they miss the deadline. To do this, they use criteria established in diagnostic manuals.
