Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a serious psychiatric illness. People with BPD have difficulty regulating their emotions and controlling their impulses. They often act out their emotions or impulses, either through intense displays of anger, or through self-injurious or suicidal behavior. Although self-injury often occurs without suicidal intent, a significant number of people with BPD die by suicide. Despite the seriousness of the disorder, recent research indicates that treatment can lead to considerable improvement over time, and there is hope for recovery!
What are the symptoms of BPD?
There are nine symptoms. You must have five to be diagnosed:
- Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment
- A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation
- Identity disturbance: unstable self-image or sense of self
- Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating).
- Suicidal behavior, gestures or threats; or self-mutilating behavior
- Difficulty regulating mood (e.g., depression, irritability usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days)
- Chronic feelings of emptiness
- Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger
- Paranoid thoughts or a feeling of being disconnected from your body or surrounding
How Can I get Well?
How can I Get Well?
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy is the only empirically validated form of therapy for BPD
- Medications including antidepressants, mood stabilizers and anti-psychotics may be helpful
- In conjunction with medications, intense psychotherapy has been shown to be an effective treatment for BPD
- Support Groups, peer support, family support, and self-help
- Personal recovery plans can be helpful (e.g. The Wellness Recovery Action Plan)
Sources:
American Psychiatric Association (1994) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
Fourth Edition (DSM-IV).
Alexander, L., Chapman & Kim L. (2007). The Borderline Personality Disorder Survival Guide: Everything you need to know about living with BPD, Oakland:,CA: Newbringer Publications Inc.
Hello i have just found out that this I have BPD, I want help I live in
Salmon Arm BC Do you know of any groups that will help me?
By: joanne collier on March 28, 2011
at 11:54 PM
When was this group started? Its a helpful site by the way.
By: Tracy on April 8, 2012
at 6:50 PM
The group was started roughly two and a half years ago.
By: SupportforBPD on April 8, 2012
at 9:46 PM
In my 20′s, my only way of avoiding the feelings of abandonment was by having sex. I was in a care home and there were three women with the same thing, and I was their quick fix too. But then came the depression, knowing none of it was real love but just a phase. Does that kind of behavior sound familiar to anyone?
By: Matthew on May 23, 2012
at 7:41 PM