Borderline Personality Disorder is an overlooked mental health condition which can cause pain in relationships and everyday life for those who have it. 14 million Americans are reported to suffer from borderline personality disorder. Millions more are also likely to suffer. Due to shame, stigma, and a widespread lack of knowledge regarding borderline personality disorder, many will never receive a diagnosis or treatment. People with borderline personality disorder suffer from labels, judgments, and more. The highly volatile and rapidly changing nature of the disorder makes it hard to diagnose and even more challenging to treat. For therapists, psychiatrists, and psychological professionals alike, borderline personality disorder is one of the most difficult mental illnesses to treat. Even telling someone who demonstrates the symptoms of borderline personality disorder that they have borderline personality disorder poses a problems for professionals.
Symptoms
Symptoms of borderline personality disorder often onset during the teenage to early twenties years. Many of the symptoms of borderline personality disorder are emotional, therefore usually being dismissed to growing up, hormones, college stress, etc. Symptoms can include:
- Extreme sensitivity
- Feeling different, isolated, and alone
- Impulsivity
- Dramatic, abusive, unstable relationships
- Bursts of anger, rage
- Temper tantrums
- Reckless behaviors including risk-taking, thrill-seeking, promiscuous sex, and experimentation with drugs and alcohol
- Extreme black and white thinking
- Self-Harm and self-harming behaviors, including using the threat of self harm
- Manipulation of others
- Deep inconsolable feelings of insecurity
- Pessimistic and negative outlook
- Idealizing individuals (often in relationships) then turning towards anger and hate when disappointed
- Unrealistic fears of abandonment
- Inability to manage and regulate emotions
- Shame, guilt, and self-criticism for unmanageable emotional reactions
- Rapidly changing moods
- Difficulty accepting change
- Dissociation
- Suspicion, jealousy, and envy that causes relational issues and feelings of low self-worth
- Clinging and codependency
The Cause Of Borderline Personality Disorder
Though many personality disorders cane linked to chemical imbalance in the brain or a hereditary adoption, borderline personality disorder cannot. Professionals are not sure what causes borderline personality disorder to manifest and spiral the way that it does. Most link it to a specific point of trauma or abandonment in a young person’s life.
Recovery from borderline personality disorder is possible. If you or a loved feel you are living with unmanageable emotional states taking a total on your personal wellbeing and relationships with others, call Avalon By The Sea for a private consultation. We are certified to treat personality disorders as a primary condition, as well as co-occurring mental health disorders. 1 888-958-7511.
