5 CHARACTERISTICS OF MASOCHISTIC PERSONALITY DISORDER

Your personality is a mixture of your inherited genes, your growing up experience, and other components of your temperament along with learned behaviors. While everyone has personality quirks, you can find it hard to function if your personality develops instabilities. This difference is called a personality disorder. Although masochistic personality disorder isn’t formally acknowledged by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), some doctors still recognize and diagnose it as a personality disorder. Here are some characteristics of a masochistic personality disorder you may find interesting.

SELF-SACRIFICING PEOPLE

A masochist chooses self-sacrifice at work, school, or home. They do things in excess to help others. Their actions may be seen as generous or unselfish, but it’s really out of a need to be accepted by others. If they receive any time of acknowledgment for them, the masochist will reject it and may end up causing themselves pain by failing at something else or getting hurt.

CAN’T FINISH A TASK

Masochists find it hard to finish tasks even if they have the ability. Even though they won’t finish their stuff, they’ll help others get things done. This is because helping makes them feel accepted.

REJECTS ACCEPTANCE

Masochists quickly grow tired of people who are nice to them. They will lose interest and reject these people out of frustration that they aren’t mean. They feel that they don’t deserve to be treated well.

SELF-INDUCED REJECTION

The masochist may purposely do things to incite the anger or rejection of other people. They may mock their kids or spouse in public to provoke outrage. The masochist may feel ashamed of getting rejected by others even though their behavior caused it. They may be surprised by people’s reactions, yet like the pain of other rejection.

REFUSES HELP

Another characteristic of this disorder is that you refuse any help from those around you. Inwardly, you are afraid of help because you feel you don’t deserve it but need to feel pain. It can be complicated for you to let go of your pain. It’s been your identity for so long. This is why therapy or counseling is so tricky.

SUCCESS

If you have a masochistic personality disorder, you will feel guilty about your achievements or success. If people acknowledge something you’ve done, you’ll respond with shame or depression. You need to feel bad about yourself. Frequently, suppose a masochistic person does succeed shortly afterward. In that case, they’ll have an experience that causes them pain, like having an accident or failing in an area that was very simple for them before.

RELATIONSHIPS

Masochists choose relationships that lead to disappointment and failure. You may have a friend who seems always to determine associations with people who hurt them or mistreat them. If you have this disorder, it’s expected that you will drift towards a bad relationship where you get mistreated even if there are other people you could choose. It’s frustrating for friends to watch, but it’s almost like the person can’t help themselves.

Have you met a person suffering from Masochistic Personality Disorder before?

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