Q: I was wondering if being an only child raised in a single-parent household could increase the likelihood of developing avoidant personality disorder. My father died just before I was two, and my mom never remarried. She wasn’t abusive in any way intentionally, but she wasn’t able to be around for me very much either. [...]

Q: I have a friend who I think has histrionic personality disorder. We’ve been friends for several years. However, we live far away, so it was hard to spot a problem at first. She’s extremely clingy and even creepy sometimes. She makes random, hurtful comments towards me. She constantly tries to undermine my intelligence in [...]

Q: I believe my father has Narcissistic Personality Disorder and am hoping to get advice on whether I should try to re-initiate a relationship with him, and if so, how. I figured out that my dad probably has NPD while I was in therapy about him — the therapist suggested that it fit, and from [...]

Q: Months ago, my husband urged me to get my “head checked” due to deepening depression, nonexistent libido, self-isolation, forgetfulness, etc. So I go ahead and do just that and come to discover I’m in an abusive relationship with a probable narcissist. We’ve been together 14 years, married for 10, and have two beautiful little [...]

Q: Frequently my wife will just suddenly get angry. Something that isn’t planned or is otherwise bad usually instigates it, but the explosive bursts of anger are so out of proportion to what’s actually happening. When I tell her not to make such a big deal out of it, things will be okay, there’s no [...]

Q: My husband sometimes violently loses his temper. He usually loses his temper when he feels somebody has insulted him or when he feels that people around him are not giving him enough respect and that nobody cares about him. He quite often tells me that I don’t care about him and that I don’t [...]

Q: My mother has been formally diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. One of her traits is that she rewrites history to fit her own view of things, even to the point of denying something she’s said only a few moments earlier. For example, she denies ever raging at my sister and me and hitting us [...]