BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER (BPD)

"45% of everyone with Bipolar Disorder also has BPD"

The main feature of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a pervasive pattern of instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image and emotions. People with Borderline Personality Disorder are also usually very impulsive. The latest stats are that 45% of everyone with Bipolar Disorder also have BPD. Most of our clients may not have enough symptoms to be diagnosed with BPD but all seem to have a least some of the symptoms. Some thinking now is that BPD and Bipolar are on the same spectrum. How does someone acquire some or all of symptoms listed below? We know that there are two causes. One is environmental - usually never having your feelings validated by an authority figure, usually a parent. So you never really get "how" to feel in any given situation. And two, you have a predisposition to having intense feelings and it was difficult to return to baseline or "normal." In other words, you felt really, really strongly about something and people told you to get over it! This kind of situation usually happens in verbally or physically abusive situations or relationships, but not always.

A person with this disorder will also often exhibit impulsive behaviors and have a majority of the following symptoms:

Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment

A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation

Identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self

Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating)

Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior

Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphoria, irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days)

Chronic feelings of emptiness

Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights)

Transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms

The above has been taken from the article "Symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder" By John M. Grohol, Psy.D., June 22, 2007. (www.PsychCentral.com)

Want to learn more about these characteristics of Borderline Personality Disorder? Also visit PsychCentral.com.