Explains borderline personality disorder (BPD), also known as emotionally unstable personality disorder (EUPD).
Borderline personality disorder (BPD), also known as emotionally unstable personality disorder (EUPD), is a personality disorder characterized by a long-term pattern of intense and unstable interpersonal relationships, distorted sense of self, and strong emotional reactions.
BPD was originally thought to exist on the borders between neurotic and psychotic behavior. Even after it was defined, BPD carried some negative stigmas about being untreatable, and people diagnosed with BPD were even sometimes referred to as evil or bad.
The “borderline” label can be stigmatizing for people suffering from the psychiatric disorder because people make different assumptions about the term. It also suggests that the person's personality is flawed, which can be upsetting to people with an already unstable sense of self.
BPD Looks Like So Many Other Mental Health Conditions
People with BPD typically also meet the criteria for multiple other diagnoses, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders, eating disorders, bipolar disorder, and so on.
The diagnosis of 'personality disorder' can be controversial because: specialists disagree about how to understand personality disorders. it doesn't take social context into enough account.
Finally, during this period, treatment for BPD was almost exclusively psychoanalytic psychotherapy. However, negative therapeutic reactions were common with the use of psychoanalytic psychotherapy for patients with BPD. At the time, these negative reactions were explained as the pernicious motives of the patient group.
A person with BPD tends to see things in extremes, and their feelings can change quickly. It's really about emotional dysregulation rather than being psychotic, neurotic or something on the borderline between them.
Women diagnosed with BPD are often said to be “hysterical.” According to an article from Mad in America, women are diagnosed with BPD 75% more often than men and many of the common symptoms resemble those of hysteria throughout history.
Many people who live with borderline personality disorder don't know they have it and may not realize there's a healthier way to behave and relate to others.
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. This paper will examine interfaces between BPD and depression, between BPD and bipolar disorder, and between BPD and psychoses.
Individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPDs) become overwhelmed and incapacitated by the intensity of their emotions, whether it is joy and elation or depression, anxiety, and rage. They are unable to manage these intense emotions.
Nonetheless, the borderline diagnosis is nosologically unclear, especially with respect to its differentiation from the schizophrenia spectrum disorders. When entering the DSM‐III, BPD was separated from schizotypal personality disorder (SPD), formerly often denoted as borderline schizophrenia.
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.
The term “borderline” is outdated and does not reflect the field's current understanding of the illness.
Genetics. Genes you inherit from your parents may make you more vulnerable to developing BPD as there is evidence that the condition can run in families.
People with a history of child abuse, such as childhood sexual abuse, physical neglect, early life stress (such as traumatic events in childhood), and child maltreatment are significantly more likely to develop BPD.
Stressful or traumatic life events
Often having felt afraid, upset, unsupported or invalidated. Family difficulties or instability, such as living with a parent or carer who experienced an addiction. Sexual, physical or emotional abuse or neglect. Losing a parent.
People with Borderline Personality Disorder have a reduced life expectancy of some 20 years, attributable largely to physical health maladies, notably cardiovascular. Risk factors include obesity, sedentary lifestyle, poor diet and smoking.
Individuals with symptoms of BPD are particularly sensitive to perceived criticism. This increases the likelihood that they will feel attacked when a therapist attempts to offer suggestions or insights. This often leads to lashing out.
Schizophrenia. The complexity of schizophrenia may be part of why the disorder is so misunderstood. The disorder affects thinking, emotions, and behavior, but it doesn't always look like what you might think it does.
cPTSD is different than BPD in that cPTSD causes difficult emotions connected to the person and their situation. cPTSD is rooted in a person's environment, while BPD is rooted internally with oneself.
Cluster B personality disorders include antisocial personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, and histrionic personality disorder. These tend to be the least common disorders but are often the most challenging to treat.