A personality disorder is a maladaptive pattern of behavior with crippling social and personal implications. Personality disorders generally have deep pathological roots, with the obvious consequence that individual victims can’t simply “choose” to behave differently. On the contrary, recovery from a personality disorder invariably requires intensive psychological counseling, which can only be delivered by caregivers who know exactly what they’re doing. If you’re going to get healed, in other words, you’re going to need help.

Successful treatment for depression and a personality disorder is very often essential to the addiction treatment process, especially insofar as addiction can be a product of the general life conditions produced by personality disorders themselves. Think of it this way: An individual suffering from a personality disorder is likely to find himself in one bad situation after another. To cope, he’s very likely to self-medicate with drugs or alcohol. In that sense, sobriety can’t be achieved without meaningful psychological healing. In the end, there’s simply no other way to get better.