What is Borderline Personality Disorder?
Borderline Personality Disorder is a highly complex mental illness which can be difficult to understand for both the diagnosed and those around them. In this post I will try to cover the basics of what BPD is in order to lay the groundwork for further exploration.
The main three things that BPD interferes with are emotion regulation, relationship stability and perception and reasoning. Those who are diagnosed with BPD will experience at least five of the following things and they will have lasted for a long time and have a large impact on your daily life. This means that there are 256 combinations of symptoms that meet the criteria for BPD meaning that no two people with BPD are exactly alike. (mind.org.uk)
You constantly feel very worried about people abandoning you and would do anything to avoid that happening
You have extremely intense emotions that can last from a few hours to a few days and can change very quickly and without reason
You have difficulty making and keeping stable and healthy relationships
You don’t have a strong sense of who you are and it can change significantly depending on who you are with
You have intense feelings of emptiness
You act impulsively that could potentially harm you
You have very intense episodes of anger which are difficult to control
Frequently thinking about, talking about and engaging in self-harm or suicidal behaviours
Occasional, stress related psychosis, paranoia or dissociation
Below are these things in slightly more detail.
People with BPD struggle to regulate their emotions as their brains comprehend threats more often and more intensely. Their brains are unable to switch the threat response off as rapidly or efficiently as non-BPD brains so the feeling of crisis lasts longer.
People with BPD can struggle to form stable relationships as they are hyper-sensitive to rejection and abandonment. This can cause them to act in ways that seem over the top or unjustified in a situation where they feel they might be abandoned or rejected. People with BPD are also hyper-sensitive to changes in others behaviors including changes in tone of voice or facial expressions. They may see these changes as signs of an forthcoming rejection.
People with BPD experience extremely intense emotions which are often painful. This can be difficult for those without BPD to understand.
People with BPD have difficulty creating a consistent sense of self as they tend to define themselves using feedback from people around them. Their environment can highly impact the way they act, what they think and what they feel. This can change dramatically from environment to environment. Due to being highly sensitive to others emotions (or what they believe to be others emotions), they can place a lot of emphasis on the reactions of others to their company. If they feel things are going well in a social situation, they will feel good about themselves but if they feel things are going badly, they will feel bad about themselves. This can cause extreme self-loathing and shame.
People with BPD often engage in impulsive and potentially harmful behaviors as they struggle to perceive threat or danger.
People with BPD use self-harm or suicidal thoughts/actions in order to regulate their own emotions.
People with BPD can experience intense feelings of emptiness due to many of the above reasons. Sometimes just existing can be painful. This can also be described as the feeling of having a gaping whole inside their chest but they don’t know what's missing.
People with BPD experience episodes of intense anger due to the lack of effective emotional regulation. This means they cannot control their anger once it reaches a certain point.
People with BPD may occasionally experience psychosis, paranoia or dissociation. This is a result of feeling completely overwhelmed by their intense emotions.
It is also common for people with BPD to experience other mental health problems alongside their BPD. This could include:
Anxiety and panic attacks
Depression
Eating disorders
Addiction
Bipolar
PTSD
It is important to remember that BPD is not a life sentence, nor does it mean that you will struggle all the time. If you have BPD it can be helpful to remind yourself that you are more than your diagnosis and not to let it define you. You are not going to feel this way forever and there is hope. Although it will take time and a lot of work by both yourself and those around you, recovery and control over your illness is possible!