Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms

Borderline Personality Disorder is often referred to as BPD. Basically, it is an emotional disorder that affects the behavior, interpersonal relationship and self-image of a person. The real cause behind this disorder could not be ascertained yet. Genetic disorder and improper functioning of some of the brain chemicals that control mood may contribute towards this problem. Besides, some external factors emotional vulnerability, abusive relationships, turbulent childhood, etc can also be responsible for it. Borderline personality disorder symptoms are mostly found in adults above the age of 18 years. However, symptoms in children during adolescence, cannot be ruled out.

Symptoms

People with this personality disorder often faces a lot of difficulty in controlling their emotions. They become so hypersensitive that social interaction become quite stressful for them. It has a negative impact on their personal relationships, profession as well as their personal identity. Some sign and symptoms that suggest that a person could be suffering from borderline personality disorder are as follows:

• Sudden bouts of strong, intense emotions like anxiety, depression or anger for no definite reasons. The duration of one such bout could be just few hours or it may last for several days.
• Impulsive acts which can be risky at times. A few examples of such impulsiveness include rash driving, unprotected sex, substance abuse, gambling, unrestrained spending and so on.
• They live their life in a constant fear of abandonment. They start imagining that their loved ones are leaving them forever. Though in reality no such things are happening. So, they start depending on others too much.
• When they lose control over their emotions, they may turn destructive. As a result, they end up in such situation where they get into physical fights. They may even hit their loved ones.
• Self-destructive behavior can be observed in some of them. They get suicidal thoughts quite often. Some people make attempts to commit suicide. Others may take pleasures in self harm by cutting or burning themselves.
• They love to evaluate situations and people around them only in positive or negative scale. So, they either admire someone a lot or hate him or her badly. Their perception keep changing from time to time. For this reason, they go through a lot of emotional turmoil all the time.
• They have problems not just with others but also with their own sense of identity. They always feel that they are worthless and need continuous assurance from others about their self-image. They often feel left out and is gripped with loneliness and boredom.

Treatment

There are no such medicines that can keep the symptoms of BPD in check. However. Doctors may prescribe some medicines for treating anxiety and depression associated with it. Antidepressant, mood stabilizers and anxiety medicines are proved to be helpful for this purpose. Like other personality disorders, borderline personality disorder is most effectively treated with the help of psychotherapy. Two forms of psychotherapy namely Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP) are highly beneficial in this regard. In these treatments, the affected person is encouraged to share his or her problems, feeling and experiences with the therapist. Then the therapist ask them to develop certain skills that can help them to control their emotions and behavior disorder. They learn to talk and behave in a restrained manner. The therapist help the patients to understand their emotions better. Thus they can overcome the difficulties in their personal relationships. The treatment should be continued regularly as per the guidelines of the therapist. One should not abandon the treatment in the middle.

Borderline personality disorder symptoms in women and men are similar. Unfortunately, individuals with this problem are often mistreated by people and society. They are considered as untreatable patients. This is a complete myth. If you suspect that you or any of your loved one is having this problem, do not feel disappointed. It can be treated and one can lead a productive life.