Borderline personality disorder
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) can cause a wide range of symptoms, which can bebroadly grouped into four main areas.
The fourareas are:
Each of these areas is described in moredetail below.
If you have BPD, you may experience a range of often intense negative emotions, such as:
You may have severe mood swings over a short space of time.
It's common for people with BPD to feel Euthanasia and assisted suicide with despair, and then feel reasonably positive a few hours later. Some people feel better in the morning andsome in the evening. The pattern varies, but the key sign is that your moods swing in unpredictable ways.
If youhave suicidal thoughts:
If you've been diagnosed with BPD, tell someone you trust about your condition.Give this person the contact details of your care team and ask him or her to contact the team if they become concerned about your behaviour.
Different types of thoughts can affect people with BPD, including:
These types of beliefsmay be psychotic and a signyou're becoming more unwell. It's important to get help if you're struggling with delusions.
If you have BPD, there are two main types of impulses you mayfind extremely difficult to control:
If you have BPD, you may feel that other people abandon you when you most need them, or that they get too close and smother you.
When people fear abandonment,it can lead to feelings of intense anxiety and anger. You may makefrantic efforts to prevent being left alone, such as:
Alternatively, you mayfeelothers aresmothering, controlling or crowdingyou, whichalso provokes intense fear and anger. You may then respond by acting in ways to make people go away, such as emotionally withdrawing, rejecting them or using verbal abuse.
These two patternsmay result in an unstable "love-hate" relationship with certain people.
Many people with BPD seem to be stuck with a very rigid "black-white" view of relationships. Either a relationship is perfect and that person is wonderful, or the relationship is doomed and that person is terrible. People with BPD seemunable or unwilling to accept any sort of "grey area" in their personal life and relationships.
For many people with BPD, emotional relationships (including relationships with professional carers) involve "go away/please don't go" states of mind, which is confusing for them and their partners. Sadly, this can often lead to break-ups.
Read about borderline personality disorder. Personality disorders can cause a range of distressing symptoms and patterns of abnormal behaviour.
Read about symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD), which include emotional instability, impulsive behaviour and intense, yet unstable, relationships with others.
Read about the causes of borderline personality disorder (BPD). It's likely to be caused by a combination of factors
Read about diagnosing borderline personality disorder (BPD). If your GP suspects BPD, you'll usually be referred to your local community mental health team (CMHT)
Read about treatment for borderline personality disorder (BPD), which may involve psychotherapy, a type of talking therapy