stereopticons
Verified Psychologist
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- May 17, 2018
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This article gives a broad overview of Cluster B personality disorders. Our verified psychologist, @stereopticons is the best person to weigh in with an informed opinion of CW (either Chris or Cindy) and a possible fit with any of these PDs.
DSM-5: The Ten Personality Disorders: Cluster B
Thanks, liltexans! Hope you're feeling better!
I'm hopelessly behind on this thread, but let me make two statements about personality disorders:
1) they don't appear out of nowhere. In other mental illnesses like depression or even psychotic disorders, you don't necessarily have symptoms for your entire life. A personality disorder develops over the entire life. For example, a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder requires conduct problems before age 15.
2) One can have traits of a personality disorder without meeting full criteria. If we're honest with ourselves, most of us have some traits of some disorders, but it's usually not enough to cause significant problems or meet full criteria for diagnosis.
These things are relevant to my opinion on CW (Chris, specifically, because I don't know anything about Cindy's childhood) because 1) if there had been reports of conduct problems in his childhood, we likely would have heard about them by now, because they may help explain this senseless crime, and 2) I think he has some traits of several cluster B disorders but (with my usual caveat of I can't diagnose someone over the internet!) it doesn't seem that he meets full criteria for any of them. Personality disorders can be devastating and affect every aspect of one's life. If he had full borderline PD, he almost certainly would have a history of failed relationships (not been married to the same person for 6? years) and/or suicide attempts.
This is a bit of a tangent, but something to remember is that the DSM-5 and diagnostic criteria were largely created for insurance purposes (you have to classify something to bill it) and mental health is much more of a spectrum than specific definitive categories.
Anyway, if you have questions for me, I'm happy to take them, just tag me because I have a lot going on and am having a hard time keeping up!