Borderline personality disorder
(BPD) is a condition characterised by impulsive actions,
mood instability, and chaotic relationships. A person with a
borderline personality disorder often experiences a
repetitive pattern of disorganisation and instability in
self-image, mood, behaviour and close personal
relationships. This can cause significant distress or
impairment in friendships and work. People with this
disorder can often be bright and intelligent, and appear
warm, friendly and competent. They sometimes can maintain
this appearance for a number of years until their defence
structure breaks down, usually around a stressful situation
like the break-up of a relationship or the death of a
parent.
What is the cause?
BPD tends to occur more often in
women than men. This may be related to genetic or hormonal
influences. There may be an innate predisposition to this
disorder in some people. The cause of BPD is unknown. People
with BPD are impulsive in areas that have a potential for
self-harm, such as drug use, drinking, and other risk-taking
behaviours. Risk factors for BPD include abandonment issues
in childhood or adolescence, sexual abuse, disrupted family
life, and poor communication within the family.
What are the symptoms?
In BPD, relationships with others are intense
and unstable, swinging wildly from love to hate and back
again. People with BPD engage in frantic efforts to avoid
real or imagined abandonment. They may also have
uncertainties about their identity or self-image. They tend
to see things in terms of extremes, either all good or all
bad. Such people also typically view themselves as victims
of circumstances and take little responsibility for
themselves or their problems.
Other symptoms include:
Frequent displays of inappropriate
anger
Recurrent suicidal gestures such as
wrist cutting or drug overdosing
Feelings of emptiness and boredom
Intolerance of being alone
Impulsiveness with money, substance
abuse, sexual relationships, binge eating, or shoplifting
Difficulty in trusting others
Emotional instability with marked and
frequent shifts to an empty lonely depression or to
irritability and anxiety
Identity disturbances with confusion
and uncertainty about self-identity, sexuality, life goals
and values, career choices, friendships
Unpredictable and impulsive behaviour
that might include excessive spending, promiscuity,
gambling, drug or alcohol abuse, shoplifting, overeating
or physically self-damaging actions such as suicide
gestures
What is the treatment?
Treatment includes psychotherapy
that allows the patient to talk about both present
difficulties and past experiences in the presence of an
empathetic, accepting and a non-judgemental therapist. The
therapy needs to be structured, consistent and regular, with
the patient encouraged to talk about his or her feelings.
Sometimes medications such as anti-depressants or
anti-psychotic medication are useful for certain patients or
during certain times in the treatment of individual
patients. Medications can help to level mood swings and to
treat depression or other disorders, which may accompany
this condition. Treatment of any alcohol or drug abuse
problems is often mandatory if the therapy is to continue.
Brief hospitalisation may sometimes be necessary during
acutely stressful episodes or if suicide or other
self-destructive behaviour threatens. Hospitalisation may
provide a temporary removal from external stress. Outpatient
treatment is usually difficult and long-term - sometimes
over a number of years.
The goals of treatment include increasing self-awareness
with greater impulse control and increased stability of
relationships. A positive result would be in one's increased
tolerance of anxiety. Therapy can help to alleviate
psychotic or mood-disturbance symptoms and generally
integrate the whole personality. With this increased
awareness and capacity for self-observation and
introspection, it is hoped the patient will be able to
change the rigid patterns tragically set earlier in life and
prevent the pattern from repeating itself in the next
generational cycle.
What is the prognosis?
Borderline personality disorder has a poor
outlook because non-compliance with treatment is common. It
can lead to the following complications:
Drug abuse
Suicide attempts
Eating disorders
Depression
Minds on the Edge
Borderline Personality Disorder - treatment of
Borderline Personality Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder types,
Disease medicines, Borderline Personality Disorder symptoms, Borderline
Personality Disorder and Disease symptoms, Borderline Personality Disorder
symptoms Disease and diagnosis, Symptoms and Solutions, Signs and Symptoms,
type of Borderline Personality Disorder, cause common, common Borderline
Personality Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder List, causes list,
Infectious Borderline Personality Disorder, Causes, Diseases , Types,
Prevention, Treatment and Facts, Borderline Personality Disorder
information, Borderline Personality Disorder: Definition, Borderline
Personality Disorder names, medical Borderline Personality Disorder, medical
Borderline Personality Disorder and disorders, cell Borderline Personality
Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder Worldwide, Borderline Personality
Disorder Research, Borderline Personality Disorder Control, Borderline
Personality Disorder Center, Digestive Borderline Personality Disorder Week,
Information about Borderline Personality Disorder, causes of different
Borderline Personality Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder Articles,
Borderline Personality Disorder and conditions, Health and Borderline
Personality Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder Patients, Borderline
Personality Disorder and Sciences, causes of alzheimer's Borderline
Personality Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder causes, alternative
medicine heart Borderline Personality Disorder, body ailments, Borderline
Personality Disorder medicines, medical antiques, type of blood Borderline
Personality Disorder
Quality
