Could Your Pessimistic Personality, Deep-Seated Insecurity, or Sinking Energy Actually Be a Treatable Disorder?

You’re intensely insecure and self-conscious, so much so it feels like one of your prime attributes. You’d describe yourself as a true-blue pessimist or cynic. You don’t really get excited about anything. You have a hard time connecting with others. And you find yourself constantly exhausted and drained. Because it’s been this way for so long—decades maybe, you’ve lost count—you just assume it’s you. You assume this is who and how you are. This must be your personality. This is just your way of life. However, these supposed traits and tendencies might actually be a diagnosable and treatable disorder. In other words, that pessimistic personality, that deep-seated self-doubt, or that sinking energy may be a symptom of an illness. In her 2017 article in Open Journal of Depression, researcher Sherri Melrose, Ph.D, RN, noted that the above speaks to some of the ways health professionals have described individuals with a chronic form of depression called persistent depressive disorder (PDD). Before DSM 5 was published in 2013, PDD was known as dysthymia. PDD is one of the most under-treated and under-diagnosed conditions. “Some people may have been depressed from an early age and thus are unaware that there is any other way to feel,” said J. Kim Penberthy, Ph.D, ABPP, a board-certified clinical psychologist and professor of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences at the University of Virginia School of Medicine who specializes in chronic depression. “Many have...
Source: Psych Central - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Depression Disorders General Personality Psychotherapy Self-Help Treatment Chronic Depression Dysthymia PDD persistent depressive disorder Source Type: news