Currently understood as a complex mental health issue, BPD is a label given to those who have extreme difficulty in emotional self-regulation. Oftentimes people who have this diagnosis experience little to no impulse control and have a great capacity to feel empty. They also tend to have an intense fear of abandonment or instability, leaving them with a low tolerance for being alone. However, due to the instability of self, having deep and meaningful relationships & friendships can be inconsistent. Usually, BPD starts in early adulthood, when symptoms are the most apparent but can gradually get better with age.
Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms
Depending on the individual’s history of trauma and experience in life, the symptoms they experience can vary and fluctuate over time. These symptoms can affect how someone will feel about themselves, how they relate to others and how they behave.
Signs and symptoms can include:
- Inappropriate, intense anger, such as frequently losing your temper, being sarcastic or bitter, or having physical fights.
- A pattern of unstable intense relationships, such as idealizing someone one moment and then suddenly believing the person doesn’t care enough or is cruel.
- Ongoing feelings of emptiness.
- Periods of stress-related paranoia and loss of contact with reality, lasting from a few minutes to a few hours.
- Wide mood swings lasting from a few hours to a few days, which can include intense happiness, irritability, shame or anxiety.
- An intense fear of abandonment, even going to extreme measures to avoid real or imagined separation or rejection.
- Rapid changes in self-identity and self-image including shifting goals and values, and seeing yourself as bad or as if you don’t exist at all.
- Suicidal threats or behaviour or self-injust, often in response to fear of separation or rejection.
- Impulsive and risky behaviour, such as spending sprees, binge eating or drug abuse, sabotaging success, gambling, reckless driving and unsafe sex.
Borderline Personality Causes
What causes BPD? Although scientists do not fully understand the causes, they agree BPD is a result of a combination of factors, including:
Genetics
Although there hasn’t been any evidence of a specific gene associated with BPD, research suggests that someone who has a close family member with BPD may be at a higher risk of developing the disorder.
Environmental factors
Depending on the history of trauma and life experiences there are certain environmental factors that may contribute to the development of BPD including:
- Separation
- Neglect
- Physical and sexual abuse
Brain Function
Since BPD’s main characteristic is a lack of emotional regulation, research points to a miscommunication between the areas of the brain that control emotions and decisions making/judgment.
Treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder
Due to the complexity of BPD, treatment for every individual will vary. It’s best to have a variety of options and see what works best for the individual. Examples of treatment options include psychotherapy like DBT, CBT, or EMDR. Although there is no one medication to treat the core symptoms of BPD, a variety of meds can be implemented for certain symptoms like mood wins, dysphoria and disorganized thinking. However, there are clinical trials underway for a novel medication that has the potential for use in the treatment of psychiatric disorders, including BPD.
Relationships and Borderline Personality Disorder
Whether you have a friendship, a romantic relationship or are a caretaker of someone who has BPD, the relationship won’t come without its challenges. Often times people with BPD will push their closest ones away in order to avoid their fear of abandonment. They can do things to self-sabotage a wonderful relationship, like cheat on their partner, in order to prevent their fear from coming true. It can be hard to navigate and there’s never really a right decision but ultimately boundaries need to be drawn and respected, no matter who gets hurt.
Related Conditions
Although BPD can be challenging to diagnose and treat, successful treatment includes examining any other conditions a person might have like:
- Anxiety Disorders
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorders
- Bipolar Disorder
- Depression
- Eating Disorders
- Substance Use Disorders
Advantages of Borderline Personality Disorder
Albeit people with BPD can be emotionally unstable, this leads them to develop unique strengths as they learn to adapt.
Empathy and compassion
Having to cope with their own extremes of emotion gives people with BPD a greater insight into others in similar situations. A study has shown that people with BPD are able to read facial expressions and emotions better than those without BPD.
Curiosity
Due to being more sensitive to senses and surroundings, those with BPD have higher senses of curiosity.
Bold
One thing is for sure people with BPD are impulsive but that can be positively linked to courageousness and having the ability to speak one’s mind.
Intuition
Based on childhood trauma, those with BPD tend to be more in tune with other people’s emotional states. If they’ve been able to practice self-awareness they can slow down enough to tune into their intuition and can help people in distress rather than exacerbate the pain.
Passionate and emotional
Despite having deep wounds of fear of abandonment and attachment issues, when someone with BPD loves, they love very deeply. When emotions are managed, liveliness and wittiness become the dominant qualities.
If you or anyone you know is dealing with BPD and would like more information about it, feel free to consult our website resources or send us an email [email protected].