Healing the Core of Addiction Personality Disorders

Individuals with personality disorders often struggle to identify with others, identify a sense of self, or build consistent values. Exclusive Hawaii Rehab uses psychotherapy, peer support, holistic therapies, and other services to help clients heal and manage their condition. To learn more about our programs and treatment services, call our office today at

(808) 775-0200

Comprehensive Treatment for Personality Disorders in Hawaii

Genuine healing is much more than addressing a collection of symptoms; instead, it is helping the person underneath. Exclusive Hawaii Recovery’s unique patient-first approach can help you or your loved one overcome a disease like addiction while also addressing a myriad of challenges and personal goals, including the effects of personality disorders, mental health needs, and how they affect substance use and daily life. Overcoming personality disorders can be challenging, and professional support through our caring and personalized therapy programs can empower you to overcome their effects while embracing the skills, strategies, and perspectives for a sustainable and transformed lifestyle.

Addressing Personality Disorders at Exclusive Hawaii Rehab

Personality disorders can be highly disruptive to daily life and can lead to many different challenges. However, healing is always possible. Since the form of personality disorder and its effects on your daily life will be unique, having an equally personalized approach to care is crucial. Exclusive Hawaii Rehab is always prepared to begin your healing journey of overcoming a personality disorder through collaborative efforts, understanding, and a comprehensive and holistic approach to change.

However, that doesn’t mean that overcoming personality disorders is easy. Rather, understanding what personality disorders are, their effects on daily life, and how they can relate to other challenges like substance abuse and addiction is part of constructing each person’s unique and effective recovery plan.

What Are Personality Disorders?

Personality disorders are a form of mental health disorder defined by prolonged changes and effects on a person’s thoughts, behaviors, and overall well-being. They often come with persistent and inflexible thought patterns, beliefs, and feelings that make up a person’s beliefs and perspectives that dictate behaviors and a person’s emotional well-being.

While personality disorders can all profoundly affect daily life, your experiences with a specific personality disorder will be unique, and you will have your own needs, goals, and challenges in addressing its effects. Some common personality disorders include:

Narcissistic personality disorder
Borderline personality disorder
Antisocial personality disorder
Schizoid personality disorder
Paranoid personality disorder
Dependent personality disorder
Histrionic personality disorder

Personality disorders involve deeply ingrained ways of thinking and behavior, often harboring strong beliefs about either a person’s self or their perspective of the world. These disorders can often begin to show signs throughout adolescence but can have profound effects even as an adult, especially if unaddressed, affecting not just everyday lifestyles and behaviors, but relationships, academic performance, professional life, or challenges in social settings. While talking with a primary care provider can provide information and work with you to explore symptoms of personality disorders, specialized treatment may be necessary to address their effects.

The Relationship Between Personality Disorders and Addiction

Those living with personality disorders can often be at an increased risk of engaging in substance abuse or developing addiction to drugs or alcohol. While it is not guaranteed that those living with a personality disorder will necessarily turn to addictive substances, being aware of their relationship is crucial to preventing these self-destructive coping strategies from developing. Being cognizant of this relationship is also important when exploring potential treatment options for co-occurring personality disorders and addiction.

It is common for those living with a personality disorder to look for any kind of relief from their daily challenges. Turning to drugs or alcohol in an attempt to self-medicate and cope with their effects is common, pushing down any number of emotional challenges. Common symptoms that those living with personality disorders experience that can prompt the use of drugs or alcohol include:

Persistent anxiety
Depression
Intense mood swings or help regulate intense emotions
Fear of abandonment or social isolation
Feelings of hopelessness

The use of drugs or alcohol can also be common to challenge feelings of emptiness or emotional numbness. Intense emotions and stress associated with personality disorders can be exhausting, with many living with these disorders feeling “empty” or detached from others. Drugs and alcohol can be a result of looking to “feel” again and challenging these feelings of detachment, even if the overall effect is negative.

However, personality disorders can lead to an unhealthy relationship with these substances without actually confronting the underlying cause. As the effects of these substances wear off, those living with personality disorders may be met with their emotional challenges again, or even further exacerbated symptoms, prompting a person to engage with drugs or alcohol again and creating a cyclic and dangerous relationship.

For others, personality disorders can cause a person to engage in increasingly risky or impulsive behaviors, leading to experimenting with drugs or alcohol, using more of these substances than intended, or engaging more often than intended. Lastly, a lack of other developed coping strategies can cause those living with personality disorders to look for any way to “push down” distressing feelings, thoughts, or beliefs. However, these substances can replace other, more effective coping strategies and can lead to addiction over time, creating a complicated healing journey.

Signs and Symptoms of Personality Disorders

Each person will experience the symptoms and challenges of personality disorders differently. However, the effects of personality disorders are never limited to a single person and often inform a person’s relationships with loved ones, peers, romantic partners, and social interactions, making addressing personality disorders crucial for entire families, communities, and the well-being of individuals and loved ones alike. Recognizing the signs and symptoms of personality disorders is the first step in exploring potential healing options.

Behavioral and Emotional Indicators

Signs and symptoms of personality disorders can be identified in a person’s behaviors or emotional state, with certain signs potentially indicating a unique need. While expressing any of these symptoms does not guarantee that a person is living with a personality disorder, recognizing these signs can be a reason to reach out to Exclusive Hawaii Rehab for more information and potential treatment options for yourself or a loved one.

The behavioral signs of personality disorders may include:

Difficulty maintaining healthy relationships with friends, family, or romantic partners
Engaging in intentionally manipulative behaviors
Lying
Impulsivity or frequent risk-taking behaviors
Shifting between excessive clinginess or reliance on others and isolationist behaviors
Repeated social conflicts in various situations, including disagreements at work, school, or with social groups
Unwillingness to follow social norms or clearly defined rules and expectations

However, those living with personality disorders can also experience persistent emotional challenges or deeply harbored beliefs about themselves or others. Some of these potential signs of personality disorders include:

Thinking in black-and-white terms about themselves, others, or situations
Persistent suspicion or lack of trust in established relationships
Feelings of emptiness or numbness
Angry outbursts or overreactions to stress or challenges
Perfectionist mentality, either expecting perfection of themselves, others, or both
Difficulty understanding or empathizing with others’ emotions
Intense reactions to criticisms or perceived criticisms
Sudden and drastic mood swings

These signs of personality disorders manifest as long patterns of behaviors or beliefs, rather than isolated episodes or situations, with consistent expression of these signs being crucial to diagnosing any kind of disorder. Talking to a professional about the signs recognized can be the best way to explore potential healing options and get more information on healing opportunities and what families and loved ones can do to support change at home.

Impact on Relationships and Daily Functioning

Personality disorders involve many deep-seated beliefs and behaviors, and they can profoundly affect daily life. Mood swings or difficulty relating to others can have detrimental effects on important relationships, with friction between family members and partners being common, especially in cases of narcissistic personality disorder. Lack of effective communication strategies, lack of trust, or difficulty maintaining or respecting boundaries with others are all common in those living with a personality disorder, leading to tumultuous relationships that can be difficult to manage.

Likewise, daily schedules can be greatly affected by personality disorders. A rigid structure is common, but those living with personality disorders can often feel these structures disrupted by mental health needs or stress. Difficulty tending to personal or professional obligations or responsibilities is common and can further exacerbate negative self-beliefs.

Why Addressing Co-Occurring Disorders Is Crucial

Co-occurring disorders present a unique challenge and often demand a personalized therapy plan to address. These situations involve both a mental health disorder or personality disorder alongside a substance use disorder (SUD), leading to unique situations, experiences, and needs. Addressing the use of addictive substances without addressing the underlying personality disorders and mental health needs that inform a person’s substance use can increase the chance of relapse in recovery. Likewise, discussing the effect of mental health and personality disorders without acknowledging their impact on substance use can lead to gaps in coping strategies and further enable the development of addiction in daily life.

Tackling co-occurring disorders in tandem and understanding their unique relationship is crucial for effective healing. Exclusive Hawaii Rehab can help you explore each of your unique challenges, understand how they impact each other in daily life, and empower you to engage in the most personalized healing options available for a sustainable approach to overcoming co-occurring disorders.

Comprehensive Treatment Options at Exclusive Hawaii Rehab

Healing from personality disorders or addiction is difficult, but there is nobody who is ever somehow “beyond” healing. Exclusive Hawaii offers an array of comprehensive treatment options, from proven, evidence-based modalities to holistic healing options, to help you find your best healing practices during your time with us.

Personalized Treatment Plans Tailored to Individual Needs

Your personal experiences with personality disorders and the self-destructive coping strategies that may have manifested alongside them will be entirely unique. While there may be shared individual experiences or symptoms, your journey and healing process are catered to your needs and goals in healing. Exclusive Hawaii Rehab approaches healing as a collaborative effort between you and our trained, caring professionals to create your therapy program.

We also blend proven therapies with strategies directed to your needs, exploring coping strategies, life skills, communication, and holistic healing opportunities that best resonate with you and your goals. These plans can also be adjusted depending on your needs throughout your time with us. They can also be further personalized with specialized options and approaches for coping with mental health needs, grief, loss, trauma, and more, to make up for your underlying needs for effective and transformative healing.

Evidence-Based Therapies

We begin each program with proven, evidence-based treatment modalities. Psychotherapy options like cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) make up the gold standard of our effective approach. However, we also offer several other evidence-based comprehensive options, from eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), mindfulness-based stress reduction, and behavior modification to adjust to changing perspectives and goals. Our professionals are prepared to work with you to explore the most effective options to create a daily therapeutic routine that addresses all of your comprehensive needs.

Role of Medication Management During Rehab and Recovery

Medication management is the use of medication to address specific challenges and needs throughout rehab, working with each person to find the right medication, structure prescriptions, and goals, and set expectations for medication use. This aspect of rehab can be an amazing resource and part of a holistic healing plan, helping to stabilize mood and emotional state, improve focus and ability to participate in effective therapies, and help address the effects of drug or alcohol withdrawal in those overcoming co-occurring disorders.

While medication is not a replacement for other effective therapies, it can provide an additional layer of support. Exclusive Hawaii Rehab can help you explore this option in your program as needed for the most effective and transformational approach to healing during your time with us and beyond.

Inpatient and Outpatient Program Options

Exclusive Hawaii Rehab offers both inpatient and outpatient programs to facilitate and maintain effective healing practices at any stage of your recovery. We understand that healing doesn’t begin or end at our walls or after our residential program. Rather, we offer support at every stage of treatment, from detox and residential care through continued outpatient programs and aftercare support, helping you through each step of your healing while providing an accessible, sympathetic, and professional resource to cope with new stresses, unforeseen challenges, or changing needs in your continued healing.

Holistic Approaches to Care

Exclusive Hawaii Rehab takes a holistic approach to each healing program, supporting evidence-based treatment options with an array of holistic experiences to address the effects of personality disorders and substance use disorder. These options include:

Mindfulness therapy
Yoga
Meditation
Breathwork
Acupuncture therapy
Massage therapy
Music therapy and sound baths
Surf therapy and swimming with rays

We also offer robust horticulture therapy to connect you to the idea of birthing something new, leaving something behind, and engaging with the healing energies and flow of Hawaii. This form of holistic therapy can bring you closer to nature, providing effective stress relief while developing new perspectives to shape your unique healing journey. Having the agency to explore new opportunities and working alongside professionals to make adjustments while being guided through new transformational and vulnerable experiences makes up the backbone of genuine healing, not just tackling a set of symptoms.

There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to healing from personality disorders or addiction. Embracing a personalized therapy plan and talking to professionals about what works and what doesn’t is part of the healing journey, ensuring that the changes and options explored make sense for you.

Advantages of Receiving Treatment in Hawaii

Hawaii’s landscape and energies offer many benefits, from its natural environment to its culture and people. The nature of Hawaii, from nature-based healing practices to oceanic healing opportunities, can help you engage with the unique nature of the island through water activities, nature walks, or detaching from the daily stresses and challenges of life and experiencing the freeing fresh air, outdoor life, and healing energies therein.

Hawaii’s culture of togetherness and healing also permeates its people. Exclusive Hawaii Rehab brings cultural Hawaiian practices into therapy to connect you to new ideas, and perspectives, and create a new sense and feeling of belonging with the culture and community of Hawaii and your peers in rehab alike.

Each of these advantages is backed by Exclusive Hawaii Rehab’s specialized and experienced staff, blending these advantages and the culture of Hawaii with state-of-the-art practices and strategies to give you the effective and proven care needed for sustainable change. Even after graduating from one of our programs, the skills and unique experiences of recovery in Hawaii can stay with you, continuing to benefit daily life. The community at Exclusive Hawaii Rehab can also foster new relationships and feelings of support that can define not just your healing journey, but also inform the development of a new lifestyle in healing from personality disorders, addiction, and more in your daily life.

Personality disorders bring profound and lasting disruptions to daily life, relationships, and personal goals. Learn to address personality disorders and their relationship with substance abuse and addiction by calling Exclusive Hawaii Rehab today at (808) 775-0200.