Background
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a personality disorder that consists of severe mood swings, black and white thinking, maladaptive coping, and interpersonal relationship issues. It used to be named unstable personality disorder before it was renamed for problems of inaccuracy and causing an unjust amount of stigmatization and ridicule. The disorder is mostly know for erratic behavior, troubled sense of self, difficulty functioning and impulsive behavior. Those struggling with this disease often have a comorbidity, therefore making the illness that much more difficult to treat. There are ways to understand and test for borderline personality disorder. These are the amazing facts about borderline personality disorder.
You don’t know who to be upset with except yourself. You’ll lash out and regret it and inwardly and privately blame yourself. Self-hate becomes very obvious over time.
The likelihood of becoming diagnosed with this illness goes up the more it runs in your family. The outcomes are typically good, considering if you go to therapy (possibly medication) and live a healthy and productive lifestyle. Eating disorders can often come along with borderline considering the low self-esteem that comes along with the disease. BPD not only will run in families, it affects women three times as much as men. The suicide rate for those with this illness is upwards of 10 percent; most of the suicides occur in male patients. If you feel like committing suicide or hurting yourself, please call a hotline or see a therapist.
Symptoms to Test for Borderline Personality Disorder
First and foremost, BPD is a personality disorder, and as such, it effects a persons moods, behaviors and reactions. In addition to all of the above, there is a long list of very likely and strong additional symptoms associated with BPD. A person with a borderline personality may also have a disturbingly extreme and rapid change in their perception of their personal identity; their sense of self very commonly takes a dive when struggling with negative feelings. All of this can be understood as to why people with this type of personality have so much “back and forth” turmoil. They’re also very avoidant when it comes to relationships and strongly sensitive to rejection.
Dejection and lack of motivation are a significant sign of depression.
Often those dealing with BPD have a very malevolent view of the world around them, adding to feelings of vulnerability and victimization. Splitting is mentioned above as “black and white thinking,” and it’s where a person goes between moods and actions based on extremes; these extremes effect personal relationships negatively. Idealization and devaluation of persons, places and things fluctuates between very good and bad on a regular basis. A strong sense of lack of control over one’s emotions may cause the person to deeply regret and also obsess about the things they do, can do and have done, thus leading to a pattern. Also, as mentioned above, chronic interpersonal relationship problems and efforts to avoid abandonment are very, very likely to occur.
Test for Borderline Personality Disorder
People who battle with this disease often have severe bouts of depression, anxiety, grief and rage. Victims often commit to reactive emotions to gain a sense of control, but they end up causing more damage. BPD often causes a distorted self-image where a person may end up thinking too little or much of themselves, thus creating a sick and harrowing cycle of negative and maladaptive reactions. Although the disorder is often stigmatized, it’s still poorly understood. Out of all of the personality disorders, BPD is the most well known and most difficult to live with and treat, except for possible another flamboyant or cluster B disorder. People with this disorder should be understood, accepted and helped just like other mental illnesses. If you or anyone you know has this pattern of thinking, be sure to receive or recommend help.
Men who act out are more likely to use violent methods of self-harm that can often end up in an accidental suicide. Most suicides from BPD are from passion and occur in the heat of the moment.
Substance abuse is another coping mechanism people with BPD utilize to deal with their negative swings. Sufferers will often use drugs to mask their issues and get caught up in addiction, thus leading to worse problems, guilt and regret down the road. This self-damaging behavior tends to have destructive effects in other parts of the person’s life. Self-destructive behavior and self-harm, as mentioned, are very common in those suffering. Also, since BPD is often confused with narcissism, there are many mistakes people make in judging the reactions someone has with a borderline personality. They are two distinct illnesses and should be treated as such.
Learn to cope by doing things that you know you love. It won’t always be easy when you know you have to do it, but this is the best thing you can do for just about anything.
Self-harm is probably one of the most significant signs of BPD. If someone is self-harming, it can be a sign of other disorders, but the prognosis increases your chance of having BPD. Self-harming can come in the form of cutting and suicide attempts. The feelings are often temporary, so feelings of extreme regret soon follow. Often times this comes in the form of self-complexity and the amount of traits a person sees themselves having. Borderlines often feel like nothing will work out in the end. The frustration often comes from the fact that their emotions cause more problems.
Borderline Personality Disorder Amazing Facts
Personality Disorders
First off, personality disorders are disorders that involve marked inflexible and maladaptive patterns of behavior (attitude), mood and inner experience (cognition). Personality disorders differ from mood disorders in that they affect the person is experiencing more than a mood differentiation. A personal struggle with BPD is often irregular, inconsistent, and it fluctuates far more often — encompassing their entire personality — than a mood disorder.
Love
Borderline personalities often severely feel a lack of identity and sense of self. Many of the personality disorders are defined by integrity of the ego, thus they’re manifested by ego-syntonic (ego integrity consistent) behaviors. Since those suffering from BPD often struggle with depression, confidence and drive, they’ll often cave in and feel a need to act out and overcompensate. This in turn ends up leading to remorse and a deep since of ineptitude.
Hate
An example of this phenomena (borderline circumstance) would be a person feeling happy, but decidedly abusing someone for causing them pain when their mood is just fine. This will then effect their mood and cause further escalation later when something will finally cause depression in addition to their personality “flaws.” While this is seen as a lack of control, the person knows full well what they’re doing. Often they’ll see what they’re doing as appropriate, but it doesn’t mean that the reactions they have can’t be adjusted or changed. The symptoms are less simple than simply feeling “bad and acting bad,” unlike mood disorders, which are a little easier to understand.
The key difference between personality and mood disorders are the symptom patterns they cause. The main feature of mood disorders is periods of emotional highs and/or lows. Some personality disorders can cause mood swings, but this isn’t the main symptom of personality disorders.
There are several different types of personality disorder including cluster A (odd), cluster B (dramatic), cluster C (anxious) and unspecified. Cluster A contains paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypal personality disorders. There’re cluster B contains borderline, antisocial, histrionic and narcissistic personality disorders. Cluster C contains avoidant, dependent, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders. The last is unspecified, which includes depressive, haltlose, immature and passive-aggressive personality disorders, respectively.
You’ll feel fine one second and like crap the next.
Think of the odd personality types as ones with eccentric “schizophrenia” type behaviors and symptoms with more lucidity than schizophrenia. Think of the dramatic personality types as ones acting out in extravagant ways in result from their extreme emotions and low inhibition. In addition, the anxious types are typically more avoidant, and the unspecified cluster are ones that don’t fit or have yet to be defined by a cluster. There have been numerous personality disorders, but many of which have been deleted over time in relation to better research having been done. Of course there almost all of the above traits and characteristics are in all of the disorders, but there is an emphasis to each sub-type. There is obvious crossover of symptoms and many of them are very similar with one or two distinct differences.
You’re possessive, jealous and negative almost all of the time with loved ones.
Those struggling with borderline personality disorder will often have extreme emotions that fluctuate between all extremes of the emotional spectrum. On top of this, they’ll experience emptiness, fear of lost control, and an extreme fear of abandonment. These fears often are attributed to childhood patterns of neglect and abuse. If the parent raised the child with the same problem, the problem is likely to affect the child as well. Not only will someone who has BPD often feel emotional detached, they’ll often have moments detached from reality (dissociation). Dissociation is a coping mechanism where a person will disconnect with reality to cope with unwanted feelings, emotions or thoughts. Although the feeling is self-generated, doesn’t mean that the person always has control of when it happens. Day dreaming is considered a form of mild dissociation — just to give context.
It never seems like you can get along and often feel deep feelings of guilt and shame.
BPD is often considered an attachment type disorder because of the affect it takes on a child to grow into be hyperemotional. This kind of attachment style is often called a disorganized attachment style. If a child grows up with parents who don’t adhere to the needs of the child, the child is considered neglected. If a child is gas-lighted, physically beat or emotional or psychologically tormented, it’s called abuse. Neglect is a form of abuse often associated with BPD. It is often seen as a person not growing out of their child-like tendencies, in a sense, to gain the attention of their caregivers. A child growing up in an environment full of negativity will show signs of negativity, especially in their teenage years.
Test for Borderline Personality Disorder
While we shouldn’t stigmatize, it should be recognized that the symptoms of the disorder should receive therapy. All too often online you’ll see people praising people with BPD as gifted or the exact opposite. You can be highly functional, but still suffer severe symptoms. Seeking help is important, coping, writing, etc. These negative affect symptoms often show when a person with BPD suffers a perceived slight. If said person is feeling betrayed, they’ll take a conversation and/or argument further than it has to go. Think of someone with borderline as the eccentric and erratic person you can’t deal with, and think of the person with bipolar as the person you’re always trying to chill out or bring up.
Learn to open up and share your emotions. This way you can learn to relate to others feeling the same struggle. Even if you’re not, this interpersonal connection can help you and others in the end through mutual bond and generosity.
BPD is often confused with Bipolar disorder, but on rare occasion, they can be comorbid. Comorbidity with BPD is rather high and can result in a diagnosis of major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and a plethora of other disorders, especially ones related to anxiety and depressive symptoms. Since it outwardly seems to be a mood problem, professionals may occasionally have a hard time diagnosing someone properly.
If you’re concerned about someone with BPD, show it with love and affection. Tough love is sometimes necessary in situations involving BPD.
When understanding if someone has the disease, it typically requires a number of symptoms being met to fully understand the persons mental state and diagnosis. Since it’s very difficult to come to a conclusion as to which illness a person may have, it can often take time before a doctor will officially diagnose someone. It has a lot to do with a number of similar symptoms that must first be properly distinguished to rule out other mood or personality disorders.
Don’t feel alone. While others may be able to hide it better, understand that others can have the same problems as you.
One of the biggest signs or symptoms associated with BPD is self-harm. Self-harm, self-destructive and damaging behavior are quintessential to receiving a BPD diagnosis. This can include literal self-harm like cutting, burning and picking, to negative symptoms such as drug addiction, desires to escape from reality, and reckless driving. These things are seen as escapes from their otherwise negative emotions. Along with this comes suicidal ideation and strong feelings of self-pity and incompetence. Not only will they attempt self-harm, they’ll also have occasional suicide attempts. Oftentimes, these suicide attempts aren’t something the person ever wanted to happen, they just needed an escape and took it too far. Other times it can be based in a very liable and self-coerced state of mind that the person will often regret immediately afterwards.
Borderline Personality Disorder Amazing Facts
Therapy
The treatment for someone with borderline personality disorder often comes down to therapy. The often recommended kind of therapy is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Cognitive behavioral therapy often helps victims cope with the negativity of their emotions in a mindful and positive way. This is to help keep the victim from falling into a downward spiral over and over again. Think of it as a type of slow exposure therapy by taking incremental steps in changing the way you feel and respond to a stimulus. You’ll be given ways to be more aware of your emotions and how to redirect them, i.e., creative outlets, etc.
Test for Borderline Personality Disorder
Another therapy commonly used is dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), which is a subset kind of CBT. The idea in therapy is to recognize that we can make mistakes, but we don’t have to overreact to them. We can learn how to accept ourselves in spite of errors in our way of reacting to help feel safe and in control. Since people dealing with BPD are constantly dealing with the next bad thing, it’s a way of calming the negative affect and adjusting properly to avoid further making the mistake again. Both of these therapies rely on a phenomena known as mindfulness. Mindfulness practices are an almost necessary part of getting through emotions to help change the habits you so easily got caught up in. The sense of relief from these feelings has been often been described as euphoric.
CBT seeks to give patients the ability to recognize when their thoughts might become troublesome, and gives them techniques to redirect those thoughts. DBT helps patients find ways to accept themselves, feel safe, and manage their emotions to help regulate potentially destructive or harmful behaviors.
Other than the major amount of stress on people’s lives, especially the one with the “disorder,” BPD can come with it’s upsides. People struggling with a borderline personality can be idealistic, courageous, emotionally intelligent, relatable and excessively loving (in good moods). While it’s not always good to promote a psychological disorder, it’s always nice to know that it’s not all bad; however, the good in someone can be maintained while reducing negative symptoms. Often, the good remain and have been a part of the person’s personality and built by character in dealing with the disease.
A strong victim mentality is often present in any time of duress.
The problem is that there is a strong victim mentality component too that makes them quick to avoid confrontation, thus adding to their fear or impending doom. BDP tends to get out of control because of getting caught up in the emotions, it doesn’t mean someone who has it can’t be insightful. Engaging and investing in this lack of control is the biggest obstacle to becoming actualized. Besides the rambunctious negative energy, BPD can be seen as a good thing, it’s just not entirely the case, though.
Additional Help (Test for Borderline Personality Disorder)
Things such as exercise, meditation, and supplements can also help those struggling with BPD. Self-soothing behaviors learned from things like mindfulness can certainly help in overcoming many of the emotional struggles caused by this disorder. Since many suffering from the illness suffer from anosognosia (lack of insight), they may not be aware of having the disease. Keeping yourself and others informed to find out if there may be an issue can help. Also, talking with friends can be of great benefit into gaining more insight and useful help. Anything involving help from others, including affection can help disrupt the lability of the mood swings associated with BPD.
Test for Borderline Personality Disorder
If you want to take medication, just be sure to do some research on the medication you’re given to see any side effects. While medication may be prescribed and helpful, in few cases is it truly necessary. If you’re going to be prescribed a medication, it’ll more than likely be an SSRI, mood stabilizer, anti-psychotic or anti-depressant. Although, it has been documented that any of these drugs only end up mildly treating specific symptoms. If taken, the outcome can be worse than the original problem. It is recommended to not take any medications for borderline personality disorder.
Just another space to fill… emptiness is emptiness. It’s not infinite, it’s just empty. All you need are a few good neurotransmitters and hormones to set you straight. There are some good supplements out there for this.
Going for a brisk walk, taking some vitamins and daily mindfulness practices is good enough. These activities already closely resemble much of what helpful therapy would do anyway. I can’t recommend not taking medicine, especially if you need it. Be sure to consult with a psychiatrist if you feel that need. Also, take your medication if you’re already on a prescription. At the very least, you can add these additions to your medicine or therapy session routines. Doing this can help you to slowly get better over time. The idea is to avoid medication if possible. Then you can slowly get off of therapy as quality of life improves on your own.
Get help if you know you need it! Don’t get caught in a cycle and want it, but not want it. Don’t look for the wrong kinds of attention just to get want to backpedal.
A few more additional facts about BPD include a concern about lying and manipulation. While it can be said that those with BPD can be perceived to have manipulative behavior, it’s also somewhat inaccurate. It has also been studied that BPD sufferers, clinically speaking, are less likely to lie. It’s been said that those struggling with BPD can be especially bold and honest. Those struggling with BPD are also way less likely to hurt others. They are far more likely to internalize their feelings of anger and pain. This in turn makes them lash out at themselves instead of others. The pain of this ends up making them even more angry and upset with themselves; however, this ends up allowing them to blame themselves all over again for their problems.
Be open and honest. Test for borderline personality disorder.
Don’t fret! If you feel like you have a problem, there’s no fear in talking about it. If you go to a doctor to get a diagnosis, make sure to go in and be honest. You’re not going to be stigmatized. Also, just show that you want to get better if your life as been in shambles.
Borderline Personality Disorder Amazing Facts
BPD wiki: wikipedia
