Borderline Personality Disorder: Symptoms and Treatments

Borderline personality disorder is a condition that affects mental health and causes major emotional instability. It can lead to other mental as well as behavioral problems.

A person with borderline personality disorder usually has a very distorted self-image and often feels worthless. He/she often experiences frequent mood swings, anger, and impulsiveness, which may push people away, even if he wants to have meaningful relationships.

Don’t despair if you have this type of personality disorder. Many people, including famous celebrities, are able to live normal liveswith proper treatment.

What Are the Signs of Borderline Personality Disorder?

Everyone experiences emotional problems and difficult behaviors once in a while. However, people with borderline personality disorder often have more severe behavioral and emotional problems that tend to recur over time and tend to disrupt their lives. Common symptoms of borderline personality disorder include:

Intense emotions
Frequent mood swings
Impulsive behaviors that can be harmful. These include reckless driving, substance abuse, gambling sprees, spendingout-of-control, binge eating, and risky sexual behaviors
Difficult relationship problems
Low self-worth
Feelings of self-loathing
A desperate fear of being abandoned
Short episodes of anxiety/depression
Aggressive behavior
Feeling of emptiness, hopelessness
Anger management problems, temper tantrums
Hurting one’s self by cutting/burning self
Paranoia/psychosis
Suicidal thoughts
Suicide attempts

Emotions

The characteristic symptoms of borderline personality disorder are striking sensitivity to negative criticism and rejection and thoughts of abandonment. A person who has a borderline personality disorder is often insecure of himself. His self-identity or self-image often changesrapidly. He may view himself as evil, or sometimes feel like he does not exist at all. This unstable self-image may lead to frequent shifts in jobs and friendships, and changes in values and goals.

Relationship

A borderline personality disorder can affect personal relationships because it can make you idealize someone at one moment and then dramatically swing to hatred over minor misunderstandings. You may see things as either white or black and no gray areas in between.

Borderline Personality Disorder Causes

What exactly causes borderline personality disorder remains unclear. Experts believe there may be abnormalities in how brain chemicals control one’s moods. It also tends to run in some families. Personal experiences and environmental factors such as childhood trauma, parental neglect, abuse or death may play a role. This is worsened when one has difficulty coping with stress and anxiety.

Borderline Personality Disorder Treatments

1. Medications

Prescribed medications do not cure borderline personality disorder, but help treat associated problems, such as anxiety, depression, and impulsiveness. These include antidepressants, anti-anxiety, andantipsychotics drugs.

2. Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy (talk therapy) is essential in the treatment of borderline personality disorder. Psychotherapy may be done in different ways, such as:

Dialectical behavior therapy, which is specifically designed to treat people with borderline personality disorder. This can be done through individual counseling or phone and group counseling. It can be combined with physical exercise and meditation, which help regulate emotions, tolerate stress and improve personal relationships.
Cognitive behavioral therapy helps you to become aware of negative thoughts, to view situations more objectively, and to find alternative solutions.
Mentalization-based therapy is talk therapy that can help you identify your own feelings and thoughts and to separate them from those of other people around you. It helps you to think before you react.
Schema-focused therapy combines treatments to help you evaluate repetitive patterns and themes in life and helps you identify the positive patterns and modify the negative ones.
Transference-focused or psychodynamic psychotherapy helps you understand your emotions and difficulties and then apply your insights to real situations.

3. How to Support as Friends and Family

Acceptance of a loved one who has a borderline personality disorder may be difficult, but you can help them by showing love and learning more about the condition.

Get help when you or your loved one becomes violent, angry, or suicidal. These situations must be taken seriously. Call immediately for help if one may be in danger of harming self or others.
Find support from your local health department or support organizations. Contact the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Modify your lifestyle and adopt healthy habits, such as, eating healthy foods, getting enough sleep, exercising regularly, and avoiding drugs and alcohol. These can help reduce stress and help reduce symptoms.

Famous People with Borderline Personality Disorder

Here are some characteristics of famous people who probably have a borderline personality disorder and their behavioral signs. Some of them have a history of it, but now they are perfectly healthy.

Marilyn Monroe