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A general medical disorder is also more likely to be the cause when psychological symptoms change significantly during middle age or later in people with a chronic mental health condition. If changes began recently and suddenly in people of any age, doctors ask about conditions that can trigger such changes.
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- Overview
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- Causes of personality changes
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- Personality change diagnosis
- Personality change treatment
Can you change your personality?
Your personality can gradually change throughout your life. Fluctuations in mood from time to time are normal. However, unusual personality changes may be a sign of a medical or mental disorder.
A personality change can be demonstrated in a variety of ways.
For example, a behavior that’s inconsistent with how you would typically react under said circumstances indicates a personality change.
Being nonchalant in situations that would normally cause stress or aggravation is an example of a personality change.
Another example is being happy to hear tragic news.
While a gradual personality change isn’t unusual, a sudden change can be caused by an injury or illness.
Look for the following signs to determine if strange or unusual behavior is an emergency situation:
•weak pulse
•clammy skin
•rapid heart rate
•rapid breathing
Grief, bad news, and disappointment can cause a normally happy person to become downtrodden. Sometimes, a person’s mood can be altered for weeks or months after hearing devastating news. However, mood changes aren’t the same as personality changes.
However, some people experience unusual or strange behavior for years, which may occur due to an illness or injury. A person may experience a change in their demeanor after experiencing a traumatic situation or witnesses an unpleasant event.
These behavioral changes may be caused by a mental health condition, such as:
•Anxiety: Anxiety occurs when a person feels nervous or uneasy about a situation. It’s normal to experience some anxiety, but when it occurs on a regular basis without provocation, it may be a sign of generalized anxiety disorder.
•Panic attacks: Panic attacks are periods of extreme fear. Sometimes, the fear seems to be irrational. Such situations include a person having a panic attack when seeing an elevator or speaking in public.
•Post-traumatic stress disorder: Also called PTSD, this is a mental health condition marked by extreme fear, flashbacks, and in some cases, hallucinations. PTSD is triggered by memories of trauma, such as a terrorist attack or car accident.
While our moods and behavior naturally fluctuate, someone with a personality change may not be acting like their usual self and may show extreme changes in behavior.
Some of the symptoms of a personality change may include:
•new symptoms of anxiety or changes in mood
•anger threshold
•insensitive or rude behavior
•impulsive behavior
If you’ve been experiencing a personality change, speak to your healthcare provider about it. Make sure to note:
•when the personality change began
•what time of day you experience it
•what triggers it
•whether it happens after taking prescription medication (bring the medication with you)
•if you’re taking drugs
A personality change caused by a medical condition may subside once the condition is treated. However, in some cases, it won’t go away with treatment of the underlying condition.
In this case, your condition may be treated separately using mood-altering medications, depending on the cause.
If you have a hormonal imbalance, your personality change may subside after you take the prescribed medications to balance your hormones. Replacement estrogen, low-dose birth control pills, and progesterone injections are commonly prescribed medications.
Mental health conditions may be treated with a combination of mood-altering medications and therapy. Healthcare providers typically prescribe medications to treat conditions such as anxiety disorder, panic disorder, PTSD, and bipolar disorder. If you’re concerned about your mental health and don’t already have a mental healthcare provider, you can view doctors in your area through the Healthline FindCare tool.
Sep 18, 2023 · When diagnosing personality changes, a doctor or other healthcare professional will initially aim to determine the cause, ascertaining whether it is related to a physical or mental health condition. They will ask the individual for their medical history, family history of mental and physical health conditions, current diagnoses, and any medications or substances being taken or recently stopped ...
- Naomi Carr
Jul 14, 2023 · A personality disorder is a mental health condition where people have a lifelong pattern of seeing themselves and reacting to others in ways that cause problems. People with personality disorders often have a hard time understanding emotions and tolerating distress. And they act impulsively.
Sep 6, 2024 · Below are a few common medical conditions that can lead to a personality change. Traumatic brain injury . A traumatic brain injury, or TBI, may cause a variety of personality changes due to this medical condition including: Irritability; Emotional dysregulation; Inappropriate laughter; Rapid mood changes; Sudden euphoria 3; Disinhibition ...
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In summary, personality changes occur very early in the clinical course of AD, are characterized by increased Neuroticism and decreased Openness, and coincide with subtle, clinically insignificant behavioral changes that qualitatively mirror and anticipate the clinically severe behavioral problems that often complicate dementia care.
