It’s Important to Understand the Complexities of Borderline Personality Disorder

A child seeks affection and security through their caregivers and their development depends on their experiences of childhood. When these caregivers neglect or abuse the child instead of providing security, the child feels threatened and unsafe in his own environment. When these individuals grow up, it becomes hard for them to function normally in everyday life. Especially, in terms of interpersonal relationships. These people tend to have intense, unstable, and unhealthy ways of dealing with people and relationships. Let’s explore the complexities of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) – symptoms, treatments, and coping strategies. Find support and understanding for yourself or a loved one navigating the challenges of BPD.

What is Borderline Personality Disorder?

Borderline personality is a mental health disorder that affects how people see others as well as themselves. People with BPD struggle to form healthy relationships with others and themselves. They live and feel on extremes and react impulsively whether it is happiness, anger, or disgust.

People with Borderline Personality Disorder experience an intense fear of abandonment. Such people seek for love and happiness and want healthy and long-lasting relationships, but their fear of being left alone often leads to impulsive moods and reactions. They might even end up hurting themselves and others as an impulsive reaction or threaten to hurt. The symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder begin to show at early adulthood because this is the time when individuals start seeking for serious relations in life.

Also Read: Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD)

Some Common Symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder

The symptoms of Borderline Personality generally relate to how one feels about others, themselves, and how they behave in various situations. Some of the common symptoms that are seen include:

• Fear of abandonment is at extremes. The person might take extreme action to not get rejected or abandoned by the person they love. Such fear is usually a made-up thing in people with borderline personality but is very strong.
• A very unstable and intense pattern of relationship is observed. One moment, they might think that someone is perfect and the most wonderful person ever, and the other moment they find that same person a bad one. They blame them for even the slightest mistake and idealize them at the slightest effort as well.
• Unstable relationship with self. Changing goals quickly and unable to be consistent with feelings about themselves.
• Risky and impulsive behaviors are common, such as life-risking activities, gambling, consuming drugs, binge eating, unsafe sex, quitting a job unnecessarily, ending a healthy relationship, etc. Such decisions can have great adverse effects on one’s life. 
• Losing touch with reality or not being able to make rational decisions when in a paranoid state.
• Continuous feelings of emptiness are there even though the person has good things and relationships, they still feel empty and the need to seek more.
• Such people experience wide mood swings which can last from a few hours to minutes and to even days. Sometimes they become very happy, excited, or elated, and other times they might get angry, ashamed, or irritable.
• Fear of rejection or separation can often result in threats of suicide or self-injury.

Also Read: Personality Disorder: Types, Cause and Symptoms

What Causes Borderline Personality Disorder?

It is believed that there is no single factor that causes this mental health condition. Instead, a mixture or combination of various factors can make a person prone to borderline personality. Some of these factors are:

• Studies show that there is evidence that supports that borderline personality disorder can be due to hereditary or genetic factors.
• The role of neurotransmitters is also very important. Neurotransmitters like serotonin or endorphins are related to this disorder.
• It is also observed with the help of MRI that there is some unusual activity in some parts like the amygdala, hippocampus, and orbitofrontal cortex. Therefore, we can say that these parts of the brain are related to symptoms of BPD.

Environmental factors include:

• Being a victim or experiencing sexual, emotional, or physical abuse during the developmental years.
• When one experiences a long-term distress or fear during their childhood.
• As a child getting neglected by one or both of the parents can also be distressing.
• During the development years, when the caregivers of the child themselves are going through a mental health condition like bipolar disorder or depression, it also affects the child.

Also Read: Breaking the Silence: The Truth About Borderline Personality Disorder

Diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder

It is a little difficult to diagnose borderline personality disorder because its symptoms overlap with symptoms of other mental health conditions. The case of BPD also, vary with individuals. To understand and diagnose BPD, mental health professionals first make an in depth psychological evaluation of the patient by working on clinical history and the symptoms of the patient. Because BPD have some symptoms which are common in other mental health conditions as well, a mental health professional needs to rule them out first so that they can make the right diagnosis of the individual.

Other mental health conditions that accompany borderline personality disorder are anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, eating disorders, bipolar disorder, and substance abuse. It is often seen that the BPD will either go misdiagnosed or underdiagnosed.

Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder

Usually, BPD patients are resistant to treatment or even to accepting the fact that something is wrong with their functioning. However, there are a few ways to treat the symptoms of BPD if the patient is willing to put in the effort. These are:

• Psychotherapy: One of the most useful ways of treating and managing the symptoms of borderline personality disorder is to seek psychotherapy. Therapies like cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, schematic-focused therapy, transference-focused therapy, and group-led therapies are also very useful and fruitful when it comes to borderline personality disorder.
• Medication: Although there are no medications for borderline personality disorder, but to reduce and manage the symptoms of BPD, some medications are suggested by psychiatrists to control the occurrence of aggression, depression, and anxiety. However, these medications are only effective with the help of psychotherapy alongside.
• Hospitalization: Sometimes the severity of the case can increase to the point where a patient might attempt suicide or there is a risk. of self-harm or even harm to others. In such cases, the hospitalization of the patient becomes a necessary step to prevent any such situation.

Treating of BPD patients can be a long and hard journey but evidence, based treatments can reduce the symptoms and improve the overall functioning of the individual.