Borderline Personality Disorder
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a mental health condition in which a person has long-term patterns of unstable or explosive emotions.
These inner experiences often result in impulsive actions, self-image issues, and chaotic relationships with other people.
What Causes Borderline Personality Disorder?
Borderline personality disorder causes are unknown. Genetic, family, and social factors are thought to play roles.
Risk factors for BPD include:
- Abandonment in childhood or adolescence
- Disrupted family life
- Poor communication in the family
- Sexual, physical, or emotional abuse
Borderline personality disorder tends to occur more often in women and among hospitalized psychiatric patients.
Signs & Symptoms
Persons with BPD are often uncertain about their identity. As a result, their interests and values can change rapidly. They tend to view things in terms of extremes, such as either all good or all bad. Their views of other people can change quickly, for example a person who is looked up to one day may be looked down on the next day. These suddenly shifting feelings often lead to intense and unstable relationships.
- Intense fear of being abandoned
- Cannot tolerate being alone
- Frequent feelings of emptiness
- Frequent displays of inappropriate anger
- Impulsive and risky behavior, such as with substance misuse, gambling, binge eating, or sexual relationships
- Repeated crises and acts of self-harm
- Distorted sense of self
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