Identifying Personality Disorders in Children

Personality disorders are often difficult to be diagnosed in patients younger than 18 years because of their ongoing developmental changes. However, if the symptoms are pervasive, then parents mustn’t delay in consulting the specialist.
Some of the common personality disorders in children are -
Dissociative Identity Disorder – It is also known as Multiple Personality Disorder. It is a disorder where a child possesses more than one developed personality and has a different way of thinking, feeling, and acting that is completely opposite to his/her original personality. This results in an abrupt change in the way the child carries himself. Basically, they become another person in either extreme or complete way. You must have seen children growing up with their imaginary friend. They will either have an imaginary puppy as pet or will have imaginary friend named ‘Timmy’, whom their mom –dad and other family members are well aware of. This imaginary will watch television, play and even eat food with the child. But what if this happens more than often or when the child is grown up enough to understand that it is not real then it becomes a thing to worry about. Older children in the age group of 12-15 years indulging into these activities raises alarm. If this continues for long then everyone around begins to label the child or the teenager as crazy or delusional. Or, maybe, he/she suffers from a Multiple Personality Disorder.
Dependent Personality Disorder – Children afflicted with this disorder are excessive submissive and have abnormal clinging behavior and separation anxieties. They face difficulty in making everyday decisions and from time to time they need others to assume responsibility for most major areas of their life. They are reluctant in expressing disagreement with others because of fear of loss of support or approval, so much so that they volunteer to do things that are unpleasant for them or don’t feel comfortable doing it. It is difficult for them to initiate projects or doing things on their own because of a lack of self-confidence or motivation or energy. They are surrounded by exaggerated fears and are unable to care of themselves. You could see such children are dependent personality and need excessive support of parents and peer groups.
Anti-social personality disorder – In this kind of disorder children exhibit impulsive, irresponsible and exploitative behaviors, and highly negative emotions. Generally it is seen that children with antisocial personality disorder have fractured and insecure families. They fail to develop strong bonds and remain self-absorbed and indifferent to others. They lack appropriate role models and usually use aggression to solve disputes. Antisocial children choose similar children as their playmates. This association pattern usually develops during the primary school years, when peer group acceptance becomes important. Aggressive children are most probably rejected by their peers, and this rejection causes social outcasts to form bonds with one another. These relationships can encourage aggression and other antisocial conduct.