Borderline Personality Disorder

Whether you have been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD) or you know of a loved one who has recently been diagnosed, understanding BPD and the symptoms associated with it can help you make more sense of yourself and others. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, BPD is characterized by difficulty regulating emotion. If a person with BPD experiences an emotionally triggering event, it is likely very difficult for them to immediately come back from this event. BPD can lead to individuals feeling impulsive, low regarding self-esteem, difficulty maintaining stable relationships, and feeling intense emotions to triggering situations. The following are common symptoms of BPD:

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is defined by the National Institute of Health (NIH) as a serious mental disorder marked by a pattern of ongoing instability in moods, behavior, self-image, and functioning. Due to this, unstable relationships and impulsive behavior often occur. A person with BPD may experience stress-related paranoid thoughts, dissociative symptoms, inappropriate and intense anger issues, chronic feelings of emptiness, and more. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) estimates that 1.6% of the U.S. population has BPD, but it may be as high as 5.9%. Nearly 75% of the people diagnosed with BPD are women, but men have been misdiagnosed in the past. According to Dr. Thomas Lynch, assistant professor of psychology at Duke University and the Duke University Medical Center, individuals with BPD “exhibit chronic, pervasive problems getting along with people in all kinds of different contexts…and this includes therapists.” The American Psychological Association (APA) noted that while individuals with BDP may be quick to open to a therapist, they may be even quicker to shut down. APA also claimed that while people with BPD often seek out treatment, many tend to leave therapy. It is suggested that individuals with BPD may be triggered easily in therapy, which can be difficult for them to regulate those emotions and work with their therapist. A call to action is provided to therapists, because understanding the client’s reality and their emotions may help to work with them in a more collaborative way. Dr. Lynch further describes this by stating, “They never gain a sense that their needs, wants and desires are reasonable.” David M. Allen, author of the book, How Dysfunctional Families Spur Mental Disorders: A Balanced Approach to Resolve Problems and Reconcile Relationships, told Psychology Today in 2015 that people with BPD often have families that counteract the work done by a therapist. He noted that while not true for all, many families often only elicit love and concern by misery, sickness, and debilitation. Family chaos for individuals with BPD include them being blamed for problems and treated as the “black sheep” of the family. Amanda Wang, leader and organizer of RethinkBPD, gave a compelling speech for NIH in 2011. She described living with BPD as this: Living did not come naturally to me. I had to learn things, things that seemed foreign to me, emotions that had actual names… It was only then that I was able to open myself up to a love that healed, a faith that restored, and a hope that I could share with others.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI), borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a condition characterized by difficulties in regulating emotion. This leads to severe and unstable mood swings, impulsivity and instability, poor self-image and rocky personal relationships. With borderline personality disorder, people make several attempts to avoid real or imagined events of abandonment. Self-harm and suicide are two destructive behaviors that could result from someone having BPD. People who have BPD typically experience periods of depressed mood, anxiety, or irritability that can last for days, disassociation, chronic boredom or emptiness, and more. These individuals may seem as manipulative or over-dramatic, but researchers have found that they behave this way to cope with the overwhelming fear and emotional pain. For people who suffer from BPD, they are even higher at risk for adding addiction/alcoholism to the mix. Almost 9 million people who have an addiction also suffer from a mental illness. There are several symptoms of BPD that overlap with addiction/alcoholism, making it hard to diagnose at times:

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a disorder so complex that it comes in many different forms. This mental disorder comes with unstable moods, behaviors, and relationships. It will come with efforts to avoid abandonment, impulsivity, emotional instability, identity disturbances, and feelings of emptiness. BPD can be diagnosed more in early adulthood than in childhood since children and teens are constantly growing and changing who they are as people. 1.6% and 5.9% of the general population are affected by this disorder. The intensity of the symptoms could be decreased with age mostly in their 40s or 50s. In order to understand the complexity of BPD, it is best to explore the extreme symptoms that come with this disorder. One symptom is committing frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. Those with BPD can be sensitive to what is happening around them. Constantly having fears of abandonment and unleashing their anger inappropriately is a result. BPD patients can be angry at the smallest change in plans such as a meeting being canceled or being a few minutes late. If someone abandons them, then that person will be seen as bad. In order to avoid abandonment, BPD patients can commit acts of manipulation to get what they want by either hurting themselves or attempting suicide. Another symptom is having unstable and intense relationships. When meeting someone for the first or second time, these caregivers or lovers could one minute appear to look like the greatest people in the world that BPD patients want to spend time with. Then, if the ones they love do something to upset them, BPD patients can switch their mood from idealizing them to devaluing them. These individuals are able to empathize and be nurturing to others but only if their demands are met. Identity disturbance is another symptom where goals, values and career aspirations suddenly shift. Changes in opinions and plans about sexual identity, career, values, and friends can occur. These individuals can either beg for help or can be an avenger for past mistreatment. There are even feelings buried deep inside them that they did not even know they had. This can happen when the BPD patient feels they are not getting enough support, nurturing, or meaningful relationships.

Borderline personality disorder is often misdiagnosed for other issues because of the complex ways that it manifests through the emotions.

Borderline personality disorder is a difficult personality disorder to understand. The shifting moods, perspectives, boundaries, behaviors, and often times personalities can be challenging for a loved one to understand. Borderline Personality Disorder Can Start At Any Age Personality disorders like borderline do not have an age limitation because there is simply no way to control that. Thought to have roots in significant events of abandonment, the starting causes for the development of borderline can happen at any age. Early symptoms of borderline personality disorder are encouraged to get diagnosed or assessed as soon as possible. The longer borderline personality disorder goes untreated, the more severe and complicated the symptoms can become. Since borderline personality disorder often comes with self-harming behaviors including suicide attempts, it is critical to intervene as early as possible. Don’t believe that it’s too early for borderline to happen in someone. It’s never too early to seek treatment for a mental illness. Borderline Personality Disorder Can Happen For Many Reasons The cause of borderline personality disorder has remained a mystery to therapists, clinicians, researchers, and loved ones. What causes someone to act so irrationally, live with such a vast emptiness inside them, and never be convinced that they are loved? A traditional point of finger is toward childhood, specifically, the way a child related to their parents. However, the event of abandonment which most professionals believe triggers the deep fear of abandonment and associated behaviors in people with borderline, can happen at the hands of anyone or anything. Abandonment could be real, as in a very real case of being physically or emotionally abandoned. Abandonment could also be perceived, making it real to the person who experiences it. Borderline Personality Disorder Is Dramatic Attention Seeking The borderline personality is full of tricks, manipulations, and schemes to try and get the attention of loved ones. More specifically, someone with borderline personality disorder is trying to get validation to soothe their deeply rooted insecurities and abandonment fears. As a Cluster B personality disorder, borderline is categorized as a dramatic personality disorder. Outlandish behaviors, substance abuse, physical violence, verbal violence, and other seemingly dramatic behaviors are not solely attention-seeking, but a need for attention which is deeply dysfunctional.

Borderline personality disorder is one of the most pathologically complex personality disorders which can make it feel impossible to know just what is going through the mind of someone who lives with it.