impulsive and risk-taking behaviour, such as unsafe sex, illegal drug use, gambling, over eating, reckless driving or over spending. black and white thinking, or difficulty compromising. paranoid thoughts in response to stress. feeling cut off and out of touch with reality.
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a mental health condition marked by extreme mood fluctuations, instability in interpersonal relationships and impulsivity. People with BPD have an intense fear of abandonment and have trouble regulating their emotions, especially anger.
People with BPD often exhibit extreme reactions to ordinary circumstances. They can have intense mood swings and display dangerous behavioral patterns. Living with a person with BPD is frustrating at best and can be downright dangerous at its worst.
Separations, disagreements, and rejections—real or perceived—are the most common triggers for symptoms. A person with BPD is highly sensitive to abandonment and being alone, which brings about intense feelings of anger, fear, suicidal thoughts and self-harm, and very impulsive decisions.
People with BPD score low on cognitive empathy but high on emotional empathy. This suggests that they do not easily understand other peoples' perspectives, but their own emotions are very sensitive. This is important because it could align BPD with other neurodiverse conditions.
There are four widely accepted types of borderline personality disorder (BPD): discouraged, impulsive, petulant, and self-destructive BPD. You can suffer more than one kind of BPD simultaneously or at different stages in your life. Similarly, it is also possible for your condition not to fit any of these types of BPD.
Loving someone with BPD can be taxing, and it's important to have a space to process your feelings. A therapist can help you understand your relationship goals and teach you healthy coping skills for managing your stress. Likewise, they may be able to provide you with specific resources for providing BPD support.
People with BPD need validation and acknowledgement of the pain they're struggling with. Listen to the emotion your loved one is trying to communicate without getting bogged down in attempting to reconcile the words being used. Try to make the person with BPD feel heard.
For someone with this type of BPD relationship, a “favorite person” is someone they rely on for comfort, happiness, and validation. The relationship with a BPD favorite person may start healthy, but it can often turn into a toxic love-hate cycle known as idealization and devaluation.
Relationships. Relationships are one of the most common triggers for people with BPD. People with the disorder tend to experience a higher than usual sensitivity to being abandoned by their loved ones. This leads to feelings of intense fear and anger.
Impulsive and risky behavior, such as gambling, reckless driving, unsafe sex, spending sprees, binge eating or drug abuse, or sabotaging success by suddenly quitting a good job or ending a positive relationship. Suicidal threats or behavior or self-injury, often in response to fear of separation or rejection.
Aggression in BPD patients manifests itself in self-destructive behavior (e.g., high risk behavior, self-injury) or externally directed (impulsive) aggression [8, 9]. The latter can also be observed in ADHD patients and is reflected in low frustration tolerance and recurrent temper tantrums [5].
According to DSM-IV, the key features of borderline personality disorder are instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image and affect, combined with marked impulsivity beginning in early adulthood.
With quiet BPD, you'll likely try to hide these symptoms from others, resulting in intense periods of anger, guilt, or shame directed toward yourself. You may hide impulsive behaviors or try to repress your moods. You might also withdraw or isolate from others.
Narcissistic personality disorder can exist on its own but can also co-occur with borderline personality disorder. It's vital to understand the BPD and NPD relationship because some of the symptoms of both disorders overlap.
Many individuals with BPD are highly intelligent and are aware that their reactions may seem strong. These individuals often report feeling that emotions control their lives or even that they feel things more intensely than other people.
Fears like “Will my husband abandon me?” or “Do my friends actually like me, or do they just tolerate me?” can plague people with BPD to the point that it disrupts daily functioning. If this sounds familiar, you're not alone.
Borderline personality disorder is one of the most painful mental illnesses since individuals struggling with this disorder are constantly trying to cope with volatile and overwhelming emotions.