Introduction:
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by fluctuating moods, extreme emotional reactions. People experiencing borderline personality disorder feel like they are on a roller coaster ride. Their sense of self image keeps fluctuating and they have a chronic fear of abandonment.
Signs and Symptoms:
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is generally identified when a person is experiencing at least 5 of the below mentioned symptoms:
- Fear of abandonment - This is constantly with a person experiencing BPD, even at a smallest event. For. e.g. a loved one coming home late
- Unstable self image - When someone has BPD their sense of self is unstable, it keeps shifting from feeling good about oneself to feeling horrible or even hating oneself.
- Extreme Emotions - Extreme, impulsive emotions and unstable moods are common experiences when someone is suffering from BPD.
- Relationship Issues - People going through BPD generally have unstable relationships which are short lived. Most of the times they experience intense emotions either making the person feeling whole and positive or feeling horrible. There is generally no middle ground.
- Impulsive Reactions - The general tendency to overcome extreme emotions is to engage in sensation seeking behaviors, especially when the person is upset.
- Anger Issues - Intense anger and short tempered are one of the key signs of BPD. At the slightest nudge, a person with BPD might loose cool and start yelling, throwing things and become completely consumed with rage
- Out of touch with reality - People with BPD might at most times struggle with suspicion or paranoia
- Constant feeling of emptiness - There is always a feeling of emptiness that lies within a person suffering from BPD. They constantly feel there is a void within them. They try to fill that void by buying too many things or eating too much, substance abuse or too much sex, etc.
Causes:
Some probable causes for BPD might be:
- Abused or abandoned during childhood
- History of sexual abuse
- Genetic disposition
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