Is it possible to 'lose' your personality?

Question

By lose I mean just that, everything that makes u tick has gone. Your likes/dislikes gone. Your characteristics gone. That's what's happened to me now. I'm an empty shell of my former self and wondered well, is it possible (which it seems to be in my case) will it come back?

Doctors say its just depression (I'm bipolar) but it's different from that its complete loss of sense of self. Hope that clarifies matter better.

Answer 1

Well, like the doctors said, it is just symptoms of being bipolar..... You never lose your personality... Like said by other.... I believe that personality changes over time.... Try to see thing more positive and try to eliminate any negative thought from your mind... My brother has personality issues all the time, and the times we see improvements is when he starts getting more involved w/ the family.... He starts looking at the present day as "the first day of the rest of his life"... Don't look into the past, because most of the time the past, or at least a bad past is the one that hunts us...
Like said before, just eliminate negative thoughts and without you realizing it, the you that you felt it was lost was always inside you waiting for you to break the shell....

Answer 2

bipolarism, as you well know, is a very complicated state of mind. periods of high jubliation and absolute lows. But one of the main things about bipolarism is that it works in waves, and that you have to wait it out before you become the on cloud nine person.

do you take your meds regularly? I know meds can be a pain, but sometimes it takes people longer to develop the internal mechanisms to combat certain conditions (I thoroughly believe that most conditions can be controlled by the will of the person).

It sounds like you may be bipolar 2, but I couldn't say that with certainty.

If you are a christian, I can give some spiritual advice (for again, I believe that the psyche is a limb of the spiriutal aspect), but if that's not the case, then I suggest you talk to people you really trust about what you are going through, not just the doctors.

But don't worry, you are the same beautiful person that God made. Eventually, your mood will shift to balance you out.

Answer 3

I know personality can change quite dramatically with types of organic brain damage due to stroke, alzheimer's, etc. and some forms of mental illness (like schizophrenia) but otherwise no, psychologists are in full agreement that personality is pretty much fixed by the mid-twenties. By that time a growing person's 'learning curve' is done: finito la musica.

EDIT: I did some research and there seems to be a growing body of VERY RECENT scientific evidence suggesting that personality may not be quite as fixed as formerly thought. This perspective has changed largely as a reflection of the findings of recent research on the course of personality disorders. To 'lose' one's personality entirely is quite a different matter of course. Here's an interesting excerpt from the people who study this for a living:

"In 1890, William James suggested that the personality is “set in plaster” by the age of 30. With this as a premise, it follows that a “disorder of the personality” is no more amenable to change than personality. In fact, it is this model that seems to underlie everything currently understood about personality disorders and remains a cardinal assumption in psychiatry and psychology today. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) cautions that the symptoms of clients diagnosed with personality disorders are “stable, enduring, and persistent across the life span.”

Just as the characteristics of personality disorders are believed to be firmly set, so also are the defenses of an individual with a personality disorder. In an article titled “The Beginning of Wisdom is Never Calling a Patient Borderline” that appeared in the Journal of Psychotherapy Practice and Research (1992), George E. Vaillant, MD, says, “The defenses of patients with personality disorders have become part of the warp and woof of their life histories and of their personal identities.”…

To understand personality, it is necessary to consider temperament. Thought to be more biologically based, temperament is in evidence at birth. It is the foundation upon which personality develops. Psychologists often think of personality as being the interaction of temperament and environment, along with other influences. “Temperament is the basic material, the building block of what will be your personality,” Lenzenweger suggests.

Normal personality is subject to substantial genetic influences, and it is increasingly believed that there is a genetic component to personality disorders also… personality seems to be a composite of genetics, neurobiology, environment, and experience…

The following was also interesting; the author notes that 'personality' is multifaceted and can be grouped into general clusters of traits that DON'T change over time: you'll see why at

http://hart.camden.rutgers.edu/personality%20and%20neighborhood%20poster.pdf

“Most studies of personality functioning have been trait-centered and focused on an individual’s relative position on a fixed number of personality traits.

However, an increasing number of researchers have sought to understand how personality traits are organized within an
individual (Hart, Hoffman, Edlestein & Keller, 1997; Robins, John, Caspi, Moffit, & Stouthamer-Loeber, 1996)...

Answer 4

personality is some thing original it cant be changed it may get supressed not changed ur basic instinct will always make you to remember that personality is one thing which cannot be tampered with for example if you are a generous person by nature if you are not allowed to be genorous for obvious reasons at every given opportunity you will try to help others out weather it is big or small for ur mind or thought process is always in that direction. if one is a miser and how much ever he may have to act he cant give any thing freely he will hold it back

Answer 5

Absolutely you can lose your personality. However, you can also get it back. Usually when you do get it back, it is better than it was before because you have learned so much that you had no idea about before the personality was lost to begin with. Maybe to say you lose your personality is not quite as accurate as to say that you forgot your personality. You're still you, it's still there.
You've just lost track of your identity.

Answer 6

I think personality can change over time, or possibly in a shorter period of time if under continued stress, but I don't think you can be devoid of any personality.

So, if your asking if it can change, I would say yes, but not that you would have none at all.

Answer 7

I think the answer is yes, look at actors

Answer 8

DEFINITELY, SOCIETY CAN BE SO DETRIMENTAL TO SOME, THAT IT STRIPS AN INDIVIDUAL OF ALMOST EVERYTHING, NOT EXCLUDING THEIR PERSONALITY.

Answer 9

I dont understand, explain more please