can you please explain the symptoms and examples of borderline personality disorder? i really need to know, thank you! (tag this as BPD1)
Firstly, every individual with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is different, and may exhibit different combinations of symptoms. According to the DSM-IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association, 2000), borderline personality disorder is diagnosed when there is a persistent pattern of unstable interpersonal relationships, mood and self-image, as well as distinct impulsive behaviour, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts. In order to get diagnosed with this disorder, you must fulfill at least 5 of the following 9 criteria:
Do you have an intense fear of being left alone, which causes you to act in ways that, on reflection, seem out of the ordinary or extreme, such as constantly phoning somebody (but not including self-harming or suicidal behaviour)?
Do you have a pattern of intense and unstable relationships with other people that switch between thinking you love that person and they’re wonderful to hating that person and thinking they’re terrible?
Do you ever feel you don’t have a strong sense of your own self and are unclear about your self-image?
Do you engage in impulsive activities in two areas that are potentially damaging, such as unsafe sex, drug abuse or reckless spending (but not including self-harming or suicidal behaviour)?
Have you made repeated suicide threats or attempts in your past and engaged in self-harming?
Do you have severe mood swings, such as feeling intensely depressed, anxious or irritable, which last from a few hours to a few days?
Do you have long-term feelings of emptiness and loneliness?
Do you have sudden and intense feelings of anger and aggression, and often find it difficult to control your anger?
When you find yourself in stressful situations, do you have feelings of paranoia, or do you feel like you’re disconnected from the world or from your own body, thoughts and behaviour?
However, there are 526 different possible combinations of BPD symptoms so no two sufferers are alike. I myself have struggled with BPD for many years so I can give you some examples from my life and explain some of the symptoms I struggle with.
Black and White (dichotomous thinking) can be a big issue for some sufferers. It is characterized by all-or-nothing thinking, seeing situations or people as either wholly good or wholly bad with little in between, and in inability to simultaneously see the good and bad together.
‘Splitting’ is a symptoms I struggle with, and it’s a term used to describe when a person with BPD flips from believing someone is all good to believing they are all bad - I tend to split on people I am close to such as family/boyfriend as opposed to strangers/acquaintances. I also split on myself, where all my core values and beliefs about life flip. I tend to either feel immensely superior to humanity, or infinitely inferior and unworthy of existing.
Transient dissociation can occur during times of stress or extreme emotion. This can involve depersonalisation (feeling I am not real, not recognising myself), derealisation (feeling the world is not really and everything around me is disconnected. It can feel like I’m watching myself doing things but I’m not actually engaging with it.
Moulding myself to suit other people’s needs or how I want to be perceived to fit in. I can act very differently depending on who I am spending time with. I also prefer to have fewer but closer friendship than many different but less intense ones.
Impulsivity can be very difficult to deal with, because many people with BPD don’t have the barrier between having a thought and acting on it. For me this can look like very erratic behaviours like randomly jumping in a river, or impulsively spending lots of money, or taking drugs, or impulsively self harming.
Emotional intensity - BPD sufferers are described to have ‘the emotional sensitivity equivalent to a third degree burn victim’. It can feel like perpetual psychological agony or emptiness. We tend to feel everything or feel nothing.
Warped perceptions in interpersonal relationships can manifest as misinterpreting other people’s words and actions as a personal vendetta against me, and a lot of paranoia!
I used to struggle a lot with rage, and would lash out at my family in every sense, for no logical reason. I would just be filled with irrational anger that I didn’t know what to do with.
These are only my personal experiences though, and you may or may not relate to some of these symptoms. If you are worried that you are struggling with BPD or any of its traits I would really encourage you to speak to a mental health professional or a doctor. Many sufferers have chronic suicide ideation, and 10% of sufferers will complete suicide. Please don’t be afraid to reach out if you or someone you know is suffering <3
There is help available for this condition. Although there are no recommended medications for BPD, antidepressants and antipsychotics can help to alleviate symptoms. Therapies such as MBT and DBT have proven to be very successful in treating this disorder. There are also some useful links giving more information about borderline personality disorder:
If you have any other thoughts or questions please do send us another ask! We are always here for you and you don’t have to go through this alone <3