Cluster C: Dependent Personality Disorder Characteristics (Nursing)

00:01 Now let's take a little look at Dependent Personality Disorder.

00:06 A dependent personality disorder is a person who really needs a lot of care.

00:14 In fact, if you think about a newborn who grows up but never learns that they are totally dependent on the people around them, that's the kind of personality disorder you see with dependent personality disorder.

00:33 You see that baby that's now trapped in a human big body, who wants to be just taken care of all the time, who is willing to be submissive and do anything you want as long as you just take care of them.

00:53 They want to make sure that you never leave them, that you don't abandon them, that if they cry, someone will be there to respond to them.

01:04 Imagine what kind of little infant had to come up with this kind of coping mechanism to get any attention at all to be taken care of.

01:17 They become charming manipulators.

01:20 Because they want other people to take on all the responsibilities.

01:24 They're the person who, when you meet them, you might actually see a change in the way they look.

01:32 A person with a dependent personality disorder, they might, might be very shy.

01:41 Very charming.

01:43 I know you can do it.

01:45 I know I won't do it, right? If you would do that I would be ever so grateful.

01:51 I mean, please.

01:54 And you see them, you see it in the moment you see them, all of a sudden become this little child, males, females, transgender, dependent personality disorder, and any of the personality disorders.

02:10 It doesn't pick one gender, it doesn't pick a race, it doesn't pick a relationship, it doesn't pick a religion.

02:20 It doesn't pick an income level.

02:23 Remember, these disorders are ways that infants and little babies learn how to get the world around them, to give them what they need.

02:34 Now, with a dependent personality disorder, if you leave this person, even to go to work by the time you get home they're a mess, because they really didn't believe you were going to come back.

02:49 And I have a daughter who just adopted a one and a half year old puppy, well, she's not a puppy anymore. She's a dog.

02:59 But this dog has a dependent personality disorder.

03:02 It was abandoned.

03:04 It was pregnant, it lived on the street, we don't know how long.

03:08 And unless we do everything for her, including feeding her one piece at a time, she completely loses it.

03:18 Human beings need to be taken care of as young babies.

03:24 When we have children, we need to make sure that these children have what they need.

03:31 When we think about things that are going on in the world today, and little children, newborns, babies, toddlers, who are growing up in a world that is not paying attention to them, we have to start thinking about how are they learning how to cope.

03:49 And what are we going to see as they get older, as these maladaptive coping disorders start taking hold in their everyday life and continue to work.

04:00 When they hit the wall is when they become an adult.

04:03 And when suddenly these disorders are no longer charming.

04:07 These disorders are no longer working.

04:10 And so they either end up in an abusive relationship, they may end up self-medicating with drugs, they may end up engaging in criminal conduct and end up in prison, psychiatric units.

04:26 And all because during a period of time in their life when they needed someone to be able to respond to their needs, there was no one or those who responded, responded inappropriately.

04:40 So let's think about this patient with a personality disorder.

04:45 When told that he was scheduled for an interview, a patient with a personality disorder, the student nurse anticipated finding what? A...

04:57 charm drama seductiveness, admiration, or a preoccupation with my new details and perfectionism or perhaps difficulty of being alone, and in decisiveness.

05:14 A submissiveness or perhaps some grandiosity, this sense of entitlement.

05:22 And remember, dependent personality, they are dependent.

05:26 Think of that baby, if I cry and you don't give me anything, I'm gonna think no one will ever give me anything that I'll never be able to get what I need.

05:35 So, if you had said that the person has difficulty being alone, that they're indecisive, and submissive, you have chosen the correct answer.