Borderline Personality Disorder
(BPD) is a serious mental illness that is correlated with unstable moods,
behaviors, and relationships.
Due to the fact that some people
with severe BPD have brief psychotic episodes, mental health professionals
first thought of this illness to be atypical, borderline, or versions of other
mental disorders.
While mental health experts now generally agree that the term
"borderline personality disorder" can be misleading, a more accurate
term does not exist yet.
Most people who have BPD suffer from:
- Problems with regulating emotions and thoughts
- Impulsive and reckless behavior
- Unstable relationships with other people.
Individuals who have this disorder
also have high rates of co-occurring disorders, such as depression, anxiety
disorders, substance abuse, and eating disorders. They also self-harm and often
attempt suicide.
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
(DSM), to be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder,
a person needs to demonstrate a pattern of behavior that includes at least five
of the following symptoms:
- Extreme reactions—including panic, depression, rage, or
frantic actions—to abandonment, whether real or perceived
- A pattern of intense and stormy relationships with
family, friends, and loved ones, often veering from extreme closeness and
love (idealization) to extreme dislike or anger (devaluation)
- Distorted and unstable self-image or sense of self,
which can result in sudden changes in feelings, opinions, values, or plans
and goals for the future (such as school or career choices)
- Impulsive and often dangerous behaviors, such as
spending sprees, unsafe sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, and binge
eating
- Recurring suicidal behaviors or threats or self-harming
behavior, such as cutting
- Intense and highly changeable moods, with each episode
lasting from a few hours to a few days
- Chronic feelings of emptiness and/or boredom
- Inappropriate, intense anger or problems controlling
anger
- Having stress-related paranoid thoughts or severe
dissociative symptoms, such as feeling cut off from oneself, observing
oneself from outside the body, or losing touch with reality.
Small situations and events may
trigger symptoms.
If you think that you may have BPD, seek professional help to learn how to cope with this disorder.
Reference: National Institute of Mental Health
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/borderline-personality-disorder/index.shtml
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