When you have BPD, your sense of self is typically unstable. Your lovers, friends, or family members may feel like they have emotional whiplash as a result of your rapid swings from idealization to devaluation, anger, and hate. Your relationships either seem perfect or horrible, without any middle ground. You may fall in love quickly, believing that each new person is the one who will make you feel whole, only to be quickly disappointed. People with BPD tend to have relationships that are intense and short-lived. Unfortunately, this behavior tends to have the opposite effect-driving others away. You may beg, cling, start fights, track your loved one's movements, or even physically block the person from leaving. This can prompt frantic efforts to keep the other person close. Even something as innocuous as a loved one arriving home late from work or going away for the weekend may trigger intense fear. People with BPD are often terrified of being abandoned or left alone. Furthermore, the symptoms must be long-standing (usually beginning in adolescence) and impact many areas of your life. In order to be diagnosed with BPD, you must show signs of at least five of these symptoms. Signs and symptomsīorderline personality disorder (BPD) manifests in many different ways, but for the purposes of diagnosis, mental health professionals group the symptoms into nine major categories. Of course, you need a mental health professional to make an official diagnosis, as BPD can be easily confused with other issues.īut even without a diagnosis, you may find the self-help tips in this article helpful for calming your inner emotional storm and learning to control self-damaging impulses. If you identify with several of the statements, you may suffer from borderline personality disorder. When I'm feeling insecure in a relationship, I tend to lash out or make impulsive gestures to keep the other person close.I've attempted to hurt myself, engaged in self-harm behaviors such as cutting, or threatened suicide.I often do things that I know are dangerous or unhealthy, such as driving recklessly, having unsafe sex, binge drinking, using drugs, or going on spending sprees.The way I feel about the people in my life can dramatically change from one moment to the next-and I don't always understand why.I would describe most of my romantic relationships as intense, but unstable.I'm constantly afraid that the people I care about will abandon me or leave me.My emotions shift very quickly, and I often experience extreme sadness, anger, and anxiety. Recognizing borderline personality disorderĭo you identify with the following statements? But with time you'll form new habits that help you maintain your emotional balance and stay in control. Choosing to pause, reflect, and then act in new ways will feel unnatural and uncomfortable at first. Healing is a matter of breaking the dysfunctional patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving that are causing you distress. The bottom line is that most people with BPD can and do get better-and they do so fairly rapidly with the right treatments and support. However, it requires a specialized approach. In fact, the long-term prognosis for BPD is better than those for depression and bipolar disorder. In the past, many mental health professionals found it difficult to treat borderline personality disorder (BPD), so they came to the conclusion that there was little to be done. There are effective BPD treatments and coping skills that can help you feel better and back in control of your thoughts, feelings, and actions. It's a painful cycle that can feel impossible to escape. You may say hurtful things or act out in dangerous or inappropriate ways that make you feel guilty or ashamed afterwards. When you're in the throes of overwhelming emotions, you're unable to think straight or stay grounded. It's easy to understand how this emotional volatility and inability to self-soothe leads to relationship turmoil and impulsive-even reckless-behavior. And once upset, you have trouble calming down. Small things can trigger intense reactions. Some describe it as like having an exposed nerve ending. People with BPD tend to be extremely sensitive. Your self-image, goals, and even your likes and dislikes may change frequently in ways that feel confusing and unclear. If you have borderline personality disorder (BPD), you probably feel like you're on a rollercoaster-and not just because of your unstable emotions or relationships, but also the wavering sense of who you are. What is borderline personality disorder (BPD)?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |