Fake Recoveries

Not all recoveries in personality-disordered individuals are "fake" - and not all recoveries in personality-disordered individuals are "real". See our section on Real Recoveries. Every situation is different and no two personality disordered people are exactly alike. However, these situations are described here to help you understand some of the more common pitfalls when it comes to recovery.

The following sections contain descriptions of some of the more common "false positives" or "fake recoveries" that are seen when dealing with recovery in personality disordered individuals.

Placebo Effect - The Placebo Effect is when a medical patient is given a "placebo" or fake medicine - one in which there is no ingredient known to have any effect on their stated medical condition, but the patient, believing that the medicine is real, starts to feel better or reports an improvement in their symptoms.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc - The "Post hoc ergo propter hoc" fallacy is a common mistake in the diagnosis and treatment of medical and psychological conditions. "Post hoc ergo propter hoc" is Latin for "After this, therefore because of this" or in other words "If A happened then B happened, then A must have caused B to happen".

Cum hoc ergo propter hoc - "Cum hoc ergo propter hoc" is Latin for "with this, therefore because of this" or, in other words "A and B happen at the same time, therefore A must be causing B to happen". The "cum hoc ergo propter hoc" fallacy is a common mistake in the diagnosis and treatment of medical and psychological conditions.

Hoovers & Hoovering - A Hoover is a metaphor taken from the popular brand of vacuum cleaners, to describe how an abuse victim trying to assert their own rights by leaving or limiting contact in a dysfunctional relationship, gets “sucked back in” when the perpetrator temporarily exhibits improved or desirable behavior.

Moments of Clarity - Spontaneous periods when a person with a Personality Disorder becomes more objective and tries to make amends.

The Placebo Effect

The Placebo Effect is when a medical patient is given a "placebo" or fake medicine - one in which there is no ingredient known to have any effect on their stated medical condition, but the patient, believing that the medicine is real, starts to feel better or reports an improvement in their symptoms.

The placebo effect is a common problem in clinical trials of new drugs. In clinical trials, the group who is being tested with a new drug is split into two groups. The first group is given the drug. The second group is given something that has the same appearance as the drug but does not contain the active ingredient.

It is quite common in clinical trials for people in the "placebo group" to report improvements in symptoms.

In order for the drug to be deemed effective in treating a condition there has to be a statistically significant difference between the group receiving the drug and the group receiving the placebo.

The placebo effect produces a psychosomatic response. When a person thinks they are receiving a drug that may help them, they feel better, even if the drug has no clinical effect.

The placebo effect can also extend through the doctors administering the drugs. In order to make trials more accurate a "double blind" clinical trial may be performed - in which both the patient and the physician are "blind" to who received the real drug and who received the placebo.

Personality Disorder Recovery

Recovery is a term broadly used to describe proactive self-management & mitigation of symptoms by a personality-disordered individual.

Recovery - Real or Fake?

Because of the rapid, often-dramatic mood swings that personality-disordered individuals experience, it can be difficult to tell whether a change in their behavior is evidence of a substantial improvement or just part of the normal up and down of their feelings.

Occasionally, someone will say "I did "X" or the personality disordered person in my life did "Y" and things have become much better."

Whenever you observe a significant change in behavior from a person who suffers from a personality disorder, you should always ask: "How long ago did this happen?" Changes which last 12 months or more may be indicators of a long term shift. Changes lasting shorter than 12 months and much shorter durations - such as weeks or days, are more commonly part of the ebb and flow of the personality-disordered person's changing moods and emotions.

When it comes to recovery from personality disorders, the old adage usually applies:

If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Professional Avoidance

Professional Avoidance of Diagnosing or Treating Individuals who suffer from Personality Disorders

There exists a common reluctance among mental health providers to diagnose or treat individuals whom they suspect may suffer from a personality disorder.

Even when mental health professionals suspect a personality disorder may be the root cause of a family situation, there is often a reluctance to apply the label of personality disorder to an individual.

This can happen for a number of reasons:

Lack of knowledge about PD's - Even among mental health professionals, there is often a lack of understanding about how people who suffer from personality disorders function and how that affects the dynamics of a relationship. Some even doubt if personality disorders are "real" mental illnesses.

Stigma - most people don't like being labeled as "personality-disordered" or having a mental health diagnosis assigned to them for fear of what people will think. This creates reluctance among certain mental health professionals to label someone as "personality-disordered".

Avoidance of conflict - sometimes people who suffer from personality disorders can become angry, vindictive or even violent - and many mental health professionals who want to create a positive environment for themselves and their clients will skirt around the issue without applying the label "personality disorder" in the hope that they can avoid conflict.

Sense of Hopelessness - there is a belief among some mental health professionals that personality disorders are incurable and therefore not treatable effectively.

Lack of Qualification - Many therapists who are the first line of care for people who suffer from personality disorders do not have the requisite psychiatric or psychological qualifications to perform a full-blown clinical diagnosis or to prescribe medications.

Fear of losing a client - Many therapists fear that if they confront a client with a label or diagnosis of a personality disorder, the client will leave them.

Fear of dependency - Some people who suffer from personality disorders can become very emotionally attached to a therapist and begin to feel increasingly dependent on them. Some therapists will avoid people who suffer from certain types of personality disorders - especially DPD, BPD, ASPD & HPD for fear of stalking, harassment, after-hours calls, inappropriate or unprofessional sexual advances etc.

When diagnosis does happen

Full blown diagnosis of personality disorders often has to be completed by a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist, and often involves the use of written exercises, interview exercises and observation over several visits. This makes diagnosis expensive and rare and few people volunteer themselves to be tested for such a diagnosis.

For this reason, diagnosis of personality disordered individuals is typically only performed on those who are hospitalized, those who are subjected to diagnosis through the criminal justice system or those who are involved in a civil dispute - most commonly in a custody dispute over parental access to children.

Where diagnosis is administered in this way, people are often incentivized by the stakes or institutions involved to pursue treatment, therapy or work on their behavior. Therefore the prognosis for diagnosed people is better than that for those who are not diagnosed. A number of studies done on treatment programs such as CBT or DBT have had high success rates.

Barriers to Effective Treatment

Recovery for a personality-disordered individual is not typically an easy road. First and foremost, it requires a strong, stable and sincere commitment from the person seeking recovery - an acknowledgement of the need for change, a willingness to take on the challenges and a determination to see it through.

Some personality-disordered individuals are resistant to treatment.

• Some may resist because they don't want to put in the work of dealing with their illness.
• Others may prefer to stay in a state of denial where a person does not want to believe or admit that they have a problem.
• Some may resist treatment because of the perceived stigma that is sometimes attached to mental illness.

In such cases, it is sometimes common, but rarely effective, for the non-personality-disordered individual to cajole, coerce, threaten or use bargaining or ultimatums to try to force the issue. While there may be short term co-operation in the face of overwhelming pressure, we have found that the initial energy tends to wane after a few months and regress back to its normal state. The result is often energy spent and disillusionment and harboring resentment. Whether we stay in a relationship with a personality-disordered individual or go "No Contact" with them, most of us in the Non community have discovered in the long run that it is far more productive to spend our energy working on ourselves.

Emergency Services

We list this first because it may be the most important thing you read here and may someday save your life or the life of a loved one.

When someone is threatening or trying to hurt themselves or others, that is not a time to go it alone. You must contact your local emergency services immediately.

There is nothing to be gained - and much to lose - from trying to negotiate, argue or bargain with a person who is behaving in a verbally or physically violent or threatening way. That is not the time for words, it is the time to get out of the way and let the professionals do their job.

Even if you do not believe they will go through with it, you must remove yourself and any children from the situation and get emergency services involved.

See our page on Emergency Information for more details