Yes, you can absolutely get a sick note (or fit note) for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) because it's a recognized health condition that can affect your ability to work, often requiring time off or adjustments like flexible hours or reduced tasks, and healthcare professionals can provide the necessary documentation to support your leave and discuss accommodations with your employer, notes MCL Medics, Psych Central, Care Business Associate Training, Borderline in the ACT, Mind and NRA Legal.
Support in the workplace
“Reasonable adjustments” for someone with BPD may include things like time off work for medical appointments or flexible working arrangements. Individuals with borderline personality disorder are not legally required to disclose their condition to their employer.
If your borderline personality disorder meets the criteria, you can apply for Social Security disability benefits as soon as you're able. You can apply even if you're unsure you'll qualify. The application is long but as long as you answer truthfully, there's no penalty for applying.
How can I help myself in the longer term?
Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder (EUPD) is a serious and often misunderstood mental health condition that affects many people across the globe.
In fact, as EUPD can be classified as a disability, your employer is legally required to make these adjustments if they are able to. If they are not, Access to Work can help.
Why BPD Symptoms Peak in Early Adulthood. In the 20s, identity formation and independence conflict with emotional vulnerability. Research shows impulsivity and mood swings occur most frequently between the ages of 18-25.
The duration of a BPD episode varies from person to person. Some episodes might last only a few hours, while others can persist for days.
If left untreated, the person suffering from BPD may find themselves involved with extravagant spending, substance abuse, binge eating, reckless driving, and indiscriminate sex, Hooper says. The reckless behavior is usually linked to the poor self-image many BPD patients struggle with.
Medically self-sabotaging behaviors are commonly encountered in psychiatric inpatients with borderline personality disorder.
National Disability Insurance Scheme
Some people with BPD may meet the criteria for the NDIS, in particular those who have co-existing mental and physical health diagnoses. It is possible for people to recover from BPD however, and to go onto the NDIS, it is required you have a permanent disability.
Fear of Abandonment & Being Alone
For many with BPD, the fear of abandonment represents one of the most challenging aspects of living alone. This core symptom can trigger intense emotional responses when physically separated from others for extended periods.
Inability to Work
The evaluation will consider your age, work history, and experience to see what job-related tasks if any, you can still perform. If your RFC establishes that you cannot do your previous work or other jobs because of BPD, you may be granted disability benefits.
Jobs that draw on empathy, communication, and understanding, traits often strengthened by lived experience with BPD, can also be deeply rewarding. Examples include: Teaching assistant or education support worker. Counsellor, peer support, or mental health worker.
Many Autistic people are misdiagnosed with borderline/emotionally unstable personality disorder (BPD/EUPD), with most professionals preferring to accept the initial diagnosis rather than acknowledging the realities of what it means to be Autistic.
Understanding High Functioning BPD
Individuals with this diagnosis may have impulsive behaviors, experience intense anger, and undergo frequent mood swings that drastically affect how they interact with others. As a result, maintaining stable relationships can be difficult due to their emotional and behavioral state.
Clinicians can be reluctant to make a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD). One reason is that BPD is a complex syndrome with symptoms that overlap many Axis I disorders.
Feeling either “good” or “broken” — People with quiet BPD often turn splitting inward. This means they see themselves in extreme ways. You might switch between feeling confident and capable to feeling worthless and broken with little or no in between.
Common BPD medications include antidepressants (Prozac, Zoloft, Effexor, Wellbutrin), antipsychotics (Abilify, Seroquel, Risperdal, Zyprexa), mood stabilizers/anticonvulsants (Lithobid, Depakote, Lamictal, Tegretol), and anti-anxiety drugs (Ativan, Xanax, Klonopin, Buspar).
People with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) "split" (use black-and-white thinking) as a defense mechanism to manage overwhelming, conflicting emotions, especially fear of abandonment, by seeing people or situations as entirely "good" or "bad" rather than integrating complex realities, providing temporary relief from intense anxiety and emotional pain. It's a way to simplify a confusing world and protect themselves from perceived threats, but it often leads to unstable relationships and self-image.
BPD Meltdown
During a meltdown, people may experience extreme mood swings, impulsivity, and difficulty calming down. Understanding how BPD contributes to meltdowns is crucial for developing coping strategies and providing support to manage and navigate these overwhelming emotional experiences.
How to calm a BPD episode? Grounding techniques, distraction, validation, DBT skills, cold-water face splashes, and crisis coping plans can help calm intense emotional episodes.
Conclusions: Parental externalizing psychopathology and father's BPD traits contribute genetic risk for offspring BPD traits, but mothers' BPD traits and parents' poor parenting constitute environmental risks for the development of these offspring traits.
Every person is different, but here are some of the most common triggers for people with BPD:
The "3 C's of BPD" typically refer to advice for loved ones of someone with Borderline Personality Disorder, reminding them: "I didn't cause it, I can't cure it, I can't control it," to help set boundaries and avoid taking on undue responsibility for the person's actions or illness. Another set of "C's" describes core BPD traits for individuals: Clinginess (fear of abandonment), Conflict (intense relationships/moods), and Confusion (unstable self-image).