FAQ: Understanding and Overcoming Borderline Personality Disorder

Borderline Personality Disorder affects 2-3% of the general population, yet it is a disorder that is often misunderstood. Here are the responses to some FAQ regarding Borderline Personality Disorder that can help you learn more about this diagnosis and how it may be overcome.

What is Borderline Personality Disorder?

Borderline Personality Disorder is a pervasive pattern of maladaptive traits or behaviors characterized by emotional instability in the individual's relationships and social interactions. Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) manifests itself in a cluster of symptoms including impulsivity, unstable social relationships, fear of abandonment, demand for attention, high sensitivity to rejection, self mutilating or suicidal behavior, and loss of identity or dissociation. From the outside, BPD appears as instability in mood, social interactions, and behavior.

What separates BPD from Bipolar Disorder?

Unlike Bipolar Disorder, Borderline Personality does not present psychotic symptoms such as delusions of grandeur, flight of ideas, or any other telltale signs of mania. Borderline Personality Disorder is not an acute phase disorder, and its symptoms are stable over a long period of time. Both disorders are difficult to treat, yet many therapies and medications exist that can greatly reduce the symptoms of each unique disorder.

What are the implications of this Disorder?

Borderline personality can lead to dysfunctioning in many areas of the individual's daily life. Maintaining relationships at work, home, and social settings can become difficult and the resulting disruption of functioning in one or all of these areas can lead to depression and suicidal ideation or behavior. BPD can also lead to polarized emotions (strong highs and lows, instability), impulsive aggression towards oneself or others, and frequent changes in jobs and lifestyle habits.

What can one do to help someone with BPD?

BPD can be hard on the person with the disorder as well as the people that person shares relationships with. In order to move towards a more healthy relationship, it might be necessary to establish boundaries with the individual with BPD, to discourage negative behavior patterns. It is also important to stay positive while not reinforcing negative behavior or thought patterns that contribute to unhealthy, unstable relationships. Therapy can be one of the most advantageous treatments for BPD, and encouraging a BPD individual to seek therapy may start them on the path to a more functional life.

What treatments are out there?

Psychologists and psychiatrists can provide several ways to treat BPD. Psychotherapy in the forms of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Transference-Focused Therapy, Schema Focused Therapy, and others are research tested and shown to be effective in treating Borderline populations. In addtion a psychologist can refer you to a psychiatrist where medications such as SSRIs, anti-depressants, and mood-stabilizers can help treat the symptoms of BPD. It is important to remember that there is no "magic pill" that will cure this disorder, but through a commitment to change by the individual, the symptoms of Borderline Personality can be greatly reduced and the individual can lead a healthier, more productive life.

Sources:

Brown, M. Z., Comtois, K. A., Linehan, M. M. (2002). Reasons for Suicide Attempts and Nonsuicidal Self-Injury in Women With Borderline Personality Disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111 (1), 198-202.

Grilo, C. M., Gunderson, J. G., McGlashan, T. H., Morey, L. C., Pagano, M. E., Sanislow, C. A., Shea, M. T., Skodol, A. E., Stout, R. L., Yen, S., Zanarini, M. C. (2004). Two-Year Stability and Change of Schizotypal, Borderline, Avoidant, and Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorders. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 72 (5), 767-775.