Articles About Behavioral and Personality Disorders

Even healthy, well-adjusted teens go through mood and behavioral changes that can lead to odd or explosive behavior.  But how can a parent determine if these changes are becoming truly problematic, possibly requiring therapy?  Within a family, it is often easy to get caught up in small issues that are irritating,…

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is the term to describe a series of medical and mental problems that arise from a mother’s drinking while pregnant.  Because alcohol can cross the fetal barrier, it can create birth defects, slow mental and physical development, and cause permanent central nervous system damage to the brain. …

Self harm is a condition where an adolescent causes intentional injury to himself or herself. One of the most common forms of self-injury is cutting, where the young person uses razors or other sharp objects to cause themselves physical harm. This condition is more typically found in adolescent girls although…

Eating Disorders in adolescents can be challenging to identify and treat because there are many different forms that they can take.  Eating Disorders affect adolescents in different ways depending upon the type of eating disorder they have. Binge-eating is the most common eating disorder in adolescents although bulimia and anorexia…

Compulsive Personality Disorder is characterized by an obsession with perfectionism, and control.  Adolescents who have this disorder are often highly driven and are more typically first born children. Teens who deal with this disorder often have great difficulty when making decisions and also are often very sensitive to critique and…

Teens that run away from home may have different reasons depending on the situation. It is important to understand the thought process behind the adolescent’s behavior in order to understand and help the struggling teenager. The adolescent may leave because they feel they have no other choice, or their parent…

Reactive Attachment Disorder (sometimes known as Radical Attachment Disorder) is a disorder that is found in children or young adults who have not formed strong attachment with their primary caregiver or a young adult who had been neglected in their younger years by their primary caregiver. There are two primary…

Radical Attachment Disorder (more commonly referred to as Reactive Attachment Disorder) is a disorder that is found in children or young adults who have not formed strong attachment with their primary caregiver or a young adult who had been neglected in their younger years by their primary caregiver. There are…