Borderline Personality Disorder – What Makes It A Serious Mental illness?
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a serious mental illness that describes instability in a person’s moods and unbalanced perceptions of personal relationships, self-image, identity and behaviour. This instability often disrupts family relationships, work life and the person’s sense of identity. BPD was originally thought to be a form of psychosis.
The term borderline was first used by Adolph Stern in 1938 to describe the condition as being on the borderline between neurosis and psychosis. Although the condition is less well known than Bipolar Disorder or schizophrenia, BPD is a more common illness affecting 2% of the population, most of them young women.
Symptoms begin in adolescence or young adulthood, with sufferers unable to regulate their emotions. They may experience intense bouts of anger, depression, and anxiety and split personality that can last hours or days, and these may be associated with episodes of impulsive aggression and drug or alcohol abuse. Distortions in thought and sense of self can lead to frequent changes in long-term goals, career plans, jobs, friendships, gender identity, and values. Sufferers self harm without suicide intent, but a lot do attempt and commit suicide without the proper care and therapy.
People with BPD exhibit other impulsive behaviors, such as excessive spending, binge eating and risky sex, and may feel misunderstood or mistreated. They tend to develop intense but stormy attachments to others, but when a slight separation or conflict occurs they switch unexpectedly to the other extreme and angrily accuse the other person of not caring for them at all.
Symptoms may persist for several years but mostly lessen over time with some making a full recovery. Diagnosis is based on the person’s self-report and a medical professional’s observations, as well as statements from family, friends and work colleagues.
Research has shown a strong link between childhood sexual or physical abuse or neglect and BPD, and some researchers see a link between a traumatic childhood, a vulnerable temperament and stressful events during adolescence and BPD.
Individuals with BPD are often admitted into mental health clinics to be treated as patients or out patients, and account for up to 20% of psychiatric hospitalizations.
The main method of treatment for BPD is psychotherapy, including cognitive behavioral therapy, family and marriage therapy and other forms of intensive psychoanalysis. A new psychosocial treatment called dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) was developed specifically to treat BPD with favorable results. Medication is usually prescribed based on the sufferer’s individual symptoms, and can be in the form of anti-depressants, mood stabilizers and antipsychotic drugs.
August 12th, 2009 at 1:53 am
Thank you for a concise description of the range of feelings and behaviors of a Borderline, along with treatment choices.
What you didn’t mention was the extreme, twisted pain that a Borderline can cause in the life of a love partner. I had a very emotionally abusive relationship with a man who I didn’t know was a Borderline. I knew that his childhood had been traumatic but I thought that my love could compensate for that, that his painful behavior toward me would disappear if he were only loved enough.
I didn’t know that love can never cure a Borderline, because the disorder causes them to misperceive their world and then act towards others as if their misperceptions are correct. They actually believe we deserve the punishment they mete out to us.
When I finally discovered the diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder, there was nothing I could read as a layperson to understand this debilitating condition. So every time I had an aha! moment, I had to write it down — so I could reread it to keep my head on straight.
My journal turned into a book — Breaking Free from Boomerang Love — which has turned out to be a lifeline for domestic violence victims.
My advice to any partners or family members of Borderlines is to read and learn all you can about this dreadful disorder. Then decisions must be made. If the Borderline you love won’t even begin to take responsibility for their behavior, you must take steps to protect yourself.
The pain (emotional nd physical) of living with a Borderline will eventually show up in our own bodies as illness. We do love them — but we don’t have to go down with their ship, if they won’t reach out for help.
Lynn Melville
Does your partner act like Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde? Check out http://www.stoptheabuseblog.com
for over 80 behaviors that indicate the possible
presence of Borderline Personality Disorder.