.png)
What is Borderline Personality Disorder?
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a severe mental health condition that causes an individual to experience problems controlling emotions and impulses and it often creates difficulty in maintaining balanced long-term relationships with family, friends and loved ones.
People with BPD fear abandonment, experience mood swings and often act impulsively, causing conflict in their relationships. They lack a clear sense of identity and seem to frequently change ‘direction’, either in their thinking or in their behaviours.
People with BPD show heightened activity in the limbic system, an area of the brain that controls fear, anger and aggression. It is estimated that around 6.5% of the Australian population experience symptoms of BPD these types of problems at any given point in time.
What are the symptoms?
Many who experience Borderline Personality Disorder first show signs and symptoms during adolescence or early adulthood. When this mental health condition is not detected and treated as soon as possible, the risk factors for children and teens to carry this condition into adulthood, increase.
Emotional instability
- Extreme emotions/mood swings, from intense love to intense hate
- Chronic feelings of emptiness and isolation
- Explosive anger
- Difficulty expressing feelings
- Suicidal thoughts
Issues with the sense of self and identity
- Dysfunctional, distorted self-image
- Self-criticism and possible engagement in self-harm
- Impulsive, self-destructive behaviours such as unsafe sex, impulse shopping, shoplifting, drug and alcohol abuse, reckless driving, uncontrollable eating or binge eating
Issues with the sense of self and identity
- Dysfunctional, distorted self-image
- Self-criticism and possible engagement in self-harm
- Impulsive, self-destructive behaviours such as practicing unsafe sex, impulse shopping, shoplifting, drug and alcohol abuse, reckless driving, uncontrollable eating or binge eating
What causes BPD?
- Biological or genetic factors; people with BPD show heightened activity in the limbic system, an area of the brain that controls fear, anger and aggression
- Relationships with caregivers and significant others in early childhood that were particularly problematic
- Traumatic early life experiences such as abuse, neglect, death of parents
- Stressful social circumstances; financial, work, relationship or family
- Difficulty in learning how to deal with emotions because of their experiences with other people, often during early childhood
Treatment of BPD
Psychotherapy is the best treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder, with Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) being the most recommended therapy. In the DBT program, the focus is on developing healthy behaviours in an emotional crisis when the person tends to default to unhelpful long-term behaviours such as suicidal behaviours or self-harm.
The therapy works with concepts such as mindfulness or being in the present moment, which helps the individual to be aware of negative emotions and behaviours. It also teaches skills in how to tolerate negative emotions and how to communicate effectively with others, thus dealing with distress more effectively.
Medication can be part of the treatment plan described by the psychiatrist. If depression, anxiety or extreme distorted thinking are prevalent as part of the condition, anti-depressant or anti-psychotic medication may be prescribed.
Please note, Helping Minds does not offer DBT therapy. If you have BPD and require DBT therapy, you will require a referral from your GP. If you have someone close to you who is living with BPD, we can offer you support.
How do I find out more?
It is important to ask your doctor about any concerns you have. SANE Australia also produces a range of easy-to-read publications and multimedia resources on mental health challenges.
