Personality and MS - does MS make a mental illness worse or cause it?

Question

Can having MS cause Mental illness? If you had something, say a personallity disorder, could MS make it worse, or could MS cause the disorder? I am close to someone with MS who has two different personallities, one nice, and one bizare, angry and mean. You never know which one you get. The person is very smart and manipulative also. TThey act perfectly normal when others are around and tell them I am crazy. I having a feeling they were like that before, just not as obvious and they were good at hiding it until the MS progressed. Along with the progression of the disease physically, the mental issues got worse and worse also. Something they have before MS, or caused by the MS?

Answer 1

MS can exacerbate pre-existing conditions (like sociopathy or depression) because of the stress of having it. Depression especially.

Chances are this person was manipulative and mood-swingish before his or her first MS attack.

Answer 2

MS is usually associated with depression. I think anyone would be depressed if they had it. But sometimes depression was there before and gets worse because MS attacks the nervous system. She may be having trouble coping with her disease or it could be getting worse, it attacks the brain. Either way she needs help with this. She needs to see a psychiatrist who is a medical doctor and specializes in medication to help with mood disorders.Don't be too hard on her, this disease is devastating mentally and physically and the medication has some terrible side effects too. Try putting yourself in her place, she feels helpless and her disease is destroying her body. How would you feel in her place? She needs help!!!!!!! Paranoia is not an uncommon part of depression for some people and its no fun thinking people are against you or want to hurt you. She can't help it. She is also probably angry about her life being slowly destroyed. Does she have a counselor or anyone she trusts to talk to about the terrible effects of her illness? Good Luck!!!

Answer 3

Terminal cancer is on par with suicidal depression. I've known people who died young from both diseases. Schizophrenia is on par with other very disabling physical diseases. However, diseases that don't impair your cognitive state may be preferable to severe schizophrenia, where awareness of reality is impaired. Severe impairment of the cognitive state ranks with the worst diseases. Borderline personality disorder or other severe mental illness is on par with some cancers. They can affect your quality of life or shorten your life. Mental illnesses often cause people to engage in risky behaviors that can shorten the lifespan -- smoking, drinking, behavior that increases chances of infections, choosing the company of aggressive people. Bottom line - mental illnesses can be ranked like physical illnesses, and both range across the scale from terminal to minor.

Answer 4

Its possible but who knows if one causes the other as I live with both.