You have two personalities when on medication

If I understood correctly, your argument is the following: Those with personality disorders have two different personalities, one being the default off-medication personality, and one being the medicated persona. For the sake of this debate, let's define personality. Personality refers to individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. [1] Medication for mental disorders are not for changing your opinions, sexuality, memories, or even your relationships with others. Sure, depending on how drastic your disorder, your relationships may improve and your opinions may become more rational, and this is because the medication is making you more stable. It's almost as if your personality was infected with a virus, and that virus was removed, leaving what was under all the madness. Someone who gets a blood transfusion doesn't get a new body just because he or she has new blood. SA person who is on medication's personality will just be modified enough to fix the problem, and will not change the person entirely. Still, what a personality is my be harder to determine than what a species is. I may be getting a little off topic, but to better express my point, I am going to talk about the species problem. If you have ever studied evolutionary biology, you would be well aware of the species problem, an ongoing debate on how we should classify different species. The simple definition of species is the following: a category of biological classification ranking immediately below the genus or subgenus, comprising related organisms or populations potentially capable of interbreeding. [2] At first glace, this definition seems almost infallible, like the word "species" can be used to fit all the scattered puzzle pieces we call animals together. However, this is simply not the case. "Many plants, and some animals, form hybrids in nature. Hooded crows and carrion crows look different, and largely mate within their own groups, but in some areas, they hybridize. Should they be considered the same species or separate species?" [3] There are other even more convoluted examples, but I'll keep it simple, since I'm already so off topic. My point is, a single person grows and changes everyday, and a single person will act differently all the time, regardless if they are on medication or not. I know for a fact that I am not the same person I was a year ago. In fact, I'm not even the same person I was a month ago. Does this mean I have a different personality? No. At least, not how I see it. As far as I see it, personality is both who you are and what you can become. Take the crows I mentioned earlier for example, and if it helps, click on the citation three link below and read about the crows yourself. The carrion crows mostly mate with just other carrion crows, while the hooded crows mostly mate with hooded crows, but sometimes they mate together and produce hybrids. Imagine yourself five years ago as a carrion crow, and imagine yourself now as a hooded crow. Now, imagine yourself two and a half years ago as a hybrid of the two. Yourself from five years ago and yourself now may be fairly different, but between all that time you have been developing and learning, which is why have changed. Your personality is what gave to the potential to develop and change. Depending on your personality, it may be easier for you to be a kind person than someone who was born less empathetic, but it is not impossible for someone born less empathetic than you to be kinder than you, depending on their environment. To put it simply, personality encompasses who you are and what you can become through age or environment. People may act differently at different times, but still have the same personality. Medication helps you better express yourself without clouded judgement. To some, it is the glasses of the mind. Citations: [1] http://www.apa.org... [2] http://www.merriam-webster.com... [3] http://evolution.berkeley.edu...