Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms

Borderline personality disorder symptoms can be manifest in different ways. The symptom of borderline personality disorder (BPD) varies from male to female.

Research Evidence of Borderline Personality Disorder:

According to the Borderline Personality Disorder Research Foundation, BPD affects 2% of the general population, with about 11% of psychiatric outpatients and 19% of inpatients meeting diagnostic criteria for BPD.

Yet, borderline personality disorder often serious disorder has not received the scientific and clinical attention that other health and psychiatric problems of equal, or even lesser, level of disability have received.

According to the Borderline Personality Disorder Research Foundation, “Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a severe, chronic, disabling, and potentially lethal psychiatric condition. The individual who experiences with BPD has severe and extensive standing instability in their emotional, behavior lives and their self-image.”

Researchers Define BPD:

Some researchers believe this condition (which was originally thought to be at the “borderline” of psychosis) is merely a particular manifestation of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), similar to hysteria (a term applied to post-traumatic stress syndrome when body elements are emphasized).

Others believe the term has been too misunderstood and misused to be of any value and should be scrapped.

Psychologists Define BPD:

Whether it’s a unique condition or a psychological synonym, BPD is a serious mental illness characterized by pervasive instability in moods, interpersonal relationships, self-image, and behavior.

While a person with depression or bipolar disorder typically endures the same mood for weeks, a person with BPD may experience intense bouts of anger, depression, anxiety, and feelings of emptiness that may last at most a day.

Most individuals with BPD resort to self-destructive behaviors such as self-mutilation, alcohol and drug abuse, serious over or under eating, and suicide attempts in frantic bids to escape from their emotional turmoil.

The Co-Morbid Condition of Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms:

This condition often occurs together with other psychiatric problems, particularly bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, depression, OCD, anxiety disorders, narcissistic personality disorder, substance abuse, and other personality disorders.

Effects of Borderline Personality Disorder:

As with all personality disorders, borderline personality disorder can disrupt people’s lives and careers and affect other people who associate with them. Even mental health professionals may find people suffering from this disorder hard to deal with.

Symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder:

Psychological symptoms:

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, people with borderline personality disorder symptoms (BPD) may experience intense bouts of anger, depression, and anxiety that may last only hours, or at most a day.

They may also show impulsivity, aggression, anxiety, stress, self-injuries behavior and drug or alcohol abuse. People with BPD often feel ruled by the emotions that have so much difficulty controlling.

Cognitive Distortions Symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder:

Distortions in cognition and sense of self can lead to frequent changes in long-term goals, jobs and career plans, friendships, gender identity, and values.

People with BPD sometimes view themselves as fundamentally bad, or unworthy. They feel wrongly misperceive or mistreated, fed up, unfilled, and have little idea about the self. This type of symptom can be seen among the people with BPD who are socially isolated and have a lack of social support. They may also worry about being alone.

Social Relationships Symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder:

As might be expected, people with BPD often have highly unstable patterns of social relationships. They can develop intense but stormy attachments, but their attitudes towards family, friends, and loved ones may suddenly shift from idealization (great admiration and love) to devaluation (intense anger and dislike).

A slight separation or conflict can trigger angry accusations of not caring towards people who were previously idealized. Individuals with BPD are highly sensitive to rejection, even with family members.

This suspiciousness of rejection may make complexity in their life. The people with BPD may feel lonely, valueless and sometimes this feeling may cause take attempt of suicide.

What Causes Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms?

Borderline personality disorder symptoms may vary in according to its causes. BPD is similar to a number of personality disorders with both environmental and genetic factors thought to play a role.

Environmental Factors:

Researchers suspect a combination of vulnerability to environmental stress, neglect or abuse as young children, and a series of events that trigger the onset of the disorder as young adults. Adults with BPD are great sufferers of violence like rape. This may be associated with impulsivity and poor judgment in choosing partners and lifestyles, as well as harmful environments. As many as 71 percent of BPD patients reported having been sexually abused, usually by a non-caregiver.

Genetically or Hormonal Factors:

The borderline personality disorder symptoms are two to three times more common among women than among men, possibly due to genetic or hormonal influences. Another factor may be incestuous experiences, which are far more common among women.

Brain Mechanisms

Recent neuroscience research has revealed brain mechanisms underlying the impulsivity, mood instability, aggression, anger, and negative emotion characteristic of BPD. Ongoing studies focus on the brain and on the effect of childhood abuse and other stress on brain hormones.

Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms Treatment:

Like so many personality disorders, borderline personality disorder symptoms are difficult to treat. Establishing a therapeutic relationship is difficult because of unstable relationships and intense anger that are characteristic of BPD patients.

Mental health professionals are often reluctant to treat people with BPD because their hostility towards the clinical professional and persistent suicidal thoughts and feelings lead to clinician “burnout.”

Psychotherapy:

Treatments for borderline personality disorder symptoms include cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) individual or group psychotherapy, which are at least partially effective for many patients. A new psychosocial treatment termed dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) developed specifically to treat BPD has shown promise in treatment studies.

Medications:

The most useful medications for borderline personality disorder symptoms are antidepressants, carbonate, lithium or antipsychotics. But all these medications can be used for certain times by taking proper consultation with a psychiatrist doctor. Treatment of any alcohol or drug abuse problems may be necessary before therapy can continue.

Acutely stressful episodes may require brief hospitalization. Outpatient treatment is usually difficult and long-term—sometimes over a period of years.

Goals of Treatment:

Treatment goals could include increased self-awareness with greater impulse control and increased stability of relationships. Therapy might assist to lessen psychotic or mood-disturbance symptoms. Increased awareness and capacity for self-observation and introspection should help patients escape the rigid patterns that are so typical of most personality disorders.

Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms: Long-Term Outlook

At least, I want to let you know the long-term prognosis for borderline personality disorder (BPD) is generally unknown. However, short-term follow-up studies consistently reveal that patients with BPD change little over time.

It is speculated that borderline personality disorder may evolve into more stable personality disorders, or older patients may simply stop seeking treatment. With proper psychiatric mediation and psychological therapy can bring a positive outcome for BPD patients.