Schizoid and Avoidant Personality Disorders

[GrandizerII]

When it comes to personality disorders, what kinds of things influence these? And at what point does someone's personality become a disorder, as opposed to just the extreme end of a range of personalities? Like, is there something specific that causes these beyond what would just cause someone to have their natural personality?

As Cthulhu said, one thing about personality disorders is their potential to cause considerable distress and have an impact on functioning in certain domains of life. They're also not prone to change over time and tend to be relatively stable and consistent. Some of the PDs also tend to have a strong impact on surrounding people (family and friends) as well (but this is not explicitly stated in the general criteria for PDs).

The DSM-5 Criteria for PDs ( http://www.psi.uba.ar/academica/carreras...al/dsm.pdf ):

The essential features of a personality disorder are impairments in personality (self and interpersonal) functioning and the presence of
pathological personality traits. To diagnose a personality disorder, the following criteria must be met:

A. Significant impairments in self (identity or self-direction) and interpersonal (empathy or intimacy) functioning.

B. One or more pathological personality trait domains or trait facets.

C. The impairments in personality functioning and the individual's personality trait expression are relatively stable across time and
consistent across situations.

D. The impairments in personality functioning and the individual's personality trait expression are not better understood as
normative for the individual's developmental stage or socio-cultural environment.

E. The impairments in personality functioning and the individual's personality trait expression are not solely due to the direct
physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, medication) or a general medical condition (e.g., severe head
trauma).

The DSM-IV criteria (same document):

A. An enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior the deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual's culture. This pattern is manifested in two (or more) of the following areas:

1. Cognition (i.e., ways of perceiving and interpreting self, other people and events)

2. Affectivity (i.e., the range, intensity, liability, and appropriateness of emotional response)

3. Interpersonal functioning

4. Impulse control

B. The enduring pattern is inflexible and pervasive across a broad range of personal and social situations.

C. The enduring pattern leads to clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of
functioning.

D. The pattern is stable and of long duration, and its onset can be traced back at least to adolescence or early adulthood.

E. The enduring pattern is not better accounted for as a manifestation or consequence of another mental disorder.

F. The enduring pattern is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug abuse, a medication) or a general medical condition (e.g., head trauma).