Mental Illness: It’s Not Just the Big Three

 

The Big Three being, of course, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression.  There’s also, as a major category of mental illness, personality disorders, which are now viewed as far more prevalent than before.  Though psychiatrically ignored for the most part prior to 1980, where they were simply regarded as “untreatable, their recognition in DSM-III changed that.  They can also be successfully treated psychiatrically, though not by medication, which can bring significant symptomatic relief to schizophrenics, those with bipolar, or depressives.  Treatment of personality disorders requires long-term psychotherapy of a year or more, to undo the false mental narratives in the minds of the sufferers.  Fortunately, ever since the late 1980s several types of psychotherapies have been developed that successfully treat personality disorders:  though they start from different theoretical assumptions, in practice they all embrace certain similar methods and techniques of treatment.  Among them are Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Mentalization, and others, as well as hybrid approaches that draw from more than one school of therapy.  Unfortunately, these successful therapies are not generally available in CMHCS; they often require therapists in private practice, which can be a financial obstacle for many seeking treatment.

 

The individual and societal costs of untreated personality disorders are myriad and costly:  in unfilled and unfulfilling life chances and choices, in employment and schooling failures, in relationships and interpersonal interactions, and are often comorbid with other disorders notably depression.  But since successful treatment now is substantially available, it’s high time for NAMI do advocate for and demand awareness of personality disorders, and for treatment of such to be readily available and financially accessible for all who need such.  We who suffer from personality disorders have been neglected far too long; it’s time to reverse this.  And that time is now.