Personality Disorder Treatment for Men in Riverside County
The Same Patterns Keep Showing Up. That Can Change.
Some men keep running into the same walls in their relationships, at work and inside their own heads. You’ll learn where those patterns come from and practice new ways of handling emotions and people, side by side with other men, while living at home.
At a glance
- What it means: long-standing ways of thinking and reacting that keep causing problems.
- Main tools: DBT, CBT and schema therapy, individual therapy and group.
- Program options: PHP, IOP and outpatient.
- Insurance: we work with most major insurance plans.
Personality disorders in men
It Can Feel Like Everyone Else Is the Problem
A personality disorder isn’t a flaw in your character. It’s a set of deeply rooted patterns in how you think, feel and relate to others that usually took shape early in life and have hardened over time. Clinicians group them into three broad clusters: patterns marked by suspicion or detachment, patterns marked by intense or unpredictable emotions and behavior, and patterns marked by fear and anxiety. Borderline, narcissistic, avoidant and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder are a few of the better-known names.
In men, these patterns often get read as something else. Explosive anger gets called a temper problem. Distrust gets called being careful. Needing control gets called being driven. Many men only seek help after a breakup, a job loss or a partner’s ultimatum, and they often come in for depression, anxiety or drinking first. Those are worth treating too, and they often ease when the underlying patterns start to shift.
Patterns worth a closer look
Common Signs of a Personality Disorder
Everyone has quirks and blind spots. What points toward a personality disorder is a pattern that shows up across many parts of life, has been there for years and keeps causing pain for you or the people around you.
- Relationships that swing between close and explosive
- Anger that flares fast and is hard to bring back down
- Deep distrust, or assuming people are out to use you
- A shaky sense of who you are or what you want
- Acting on impulse with money, sex, substances or driving
- Needing admiration and feeling crushed by criticism
- Avoiding people or new situations out of fear of rejection
- A rigid need for control, rules or perfection
- Feeling empty or cut off from your own emotions
- The same conflicts repeating with different people
Treatment at Entelos
How We Treat Personality Disorders
Change here is gradual, and it happens through practice more than insight alone. After an assessment, your therapist will help you trace your patterns back to where they started and see what they’re trying to protect you from. Dialectical behavior therapy teaches concrete skills for tolerating distress, managing strong emotions and handling conflict without burning bridges. CBT helps you catch the assumptions that set off old reactions. Depending on your needs, your therapist may also use schema therapy, which looks at the deep-rooted patterns formed early in life and helps you build healthier ways of meeting your needs.
Group is especially useful for personality patterns, because it gives you a real-time place to notice how you come across and try something different with other men, with a clinician there to help. There’s no medication that treats a personality disorder directly, but a psychiatric provider can help if depression, anxiety or mood swings are part of the picture. Family sessions are available when you want the people you live with to understand what you’re working on.
Therapies that may be part of your plan
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Talk Therapy and Counseling
- Process Group Therapy
- Psychiatry and Medication Management
- Family Therapy
Levels of care
Questions
Common Questions
Can a personality disorder really be treated?
Yes. These patterns took years to form, so change takes consistent work, but men with personality disorders do learn to manage emotions better, keep relationships steadier and feel more in control of their lives.
What if I don't think I have a personality disorder?
That’s fine. You don’t need to accept a label to get help. Many men start because something in their life keeps going wrong, and the assessment helps make sense of why. What you call it matters less than what you do about it.
Why is group therapy part of treatment?
Because personality patterns show up most clearly with other people. Group lets you see your reactions as they happen, get honest feedback from other men and practice new skills in a setting where mistakes are expected and safe.
Keep reading
Related Pages
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Skills for handling intense emotions, stress and conflict.
Learn more
Mood Disorders
Ongoing changes in mood and energy, including when the label isn’t clear yet.
Learn more