Borderline Personality Disorder
Anakha Bhuvanesh
Borderline personality disorder(BPD) affects how you feel and think about yourself and others. It causes problems in your everyday life. It is a mental illness that affects a person’s ability to control emotions. The person with this illness will have a fear of instability and difficulty tolerating being alone. This will make them have unstable relationships even though they want it. This condition will get worse gradually with an increase in age. People with this disorder will take things to extremes, either extreme good or extremely bad. Suicide and self-destructive behavior are more common among them. It comes under cluster B personality disorders. The main drawback of this disease is that the people with this disorder don’t realize that they have this and also think that this is the healthier way to communicate with others.
Our personality develops and matures in a teenage. Most personality disorders get developed at the end of this period or at the beginning of adulthood i.e. after the age of 18. Those who suffer from anxiety, depression, or eating disorders are also more likely to be affected by these conditions. It’s more likely that you’ll develop BPD if you have a family history of it. Approximately 1.2% to 6% of the adult in the population have BPD. According to the report by the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI), about 75% of the people diagnosed with BPD are women.
ome common symptoms which show a person has BPD are maintaining unstable relationships with everyone, self-hurting behaviors, unstable and deformed sense of self, problems in trusting others easily, unable to control anger, feeling detached from your body, and high suicidal tendencies. One may experience two or more symptoms based on the intensity of the illness you have. It is sometimes misdiagnosed as Posttraumatic stress disorder(PTSD) or depression.
There are several factors that cause the development of BPD, which include genetics, environmental factors, and changes in brain chemistry. If your close relative is affected by this disease you have a higher risk of developing BPD. If you had some childhood trauma, you have a higher risk of developing BPD. A common doctor sometimes fails to diagnose BPD, but a professional in mental health like a psychologist, psychiatrist, or social worker is more likely to diagnose BPD. There is no medical test to diagnose BPD, it is diagnosed only through the symptoms.
A BPD can have a detrimental effect on many aspects of your life. It includes frequent job changes, unable to complete education, troubled relationships which may lead to divorce, self-harming such as cutting or burning, get into toxic relationships, more likely to be affected by sexually transmitted diseases, suicidal behaviour.
BPD Flag
There are many treatment options available for this disease, which include psychotherapy, medications, and group, peer, and family support. The aim of treatment is to make a person identify his own treatment plan i.e. which works for him and which doesn’t. Psychotherapy—such as dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and psychodynamic psychotherapy is the primary choice for BPD. Several medications can be used to treat various symptoms. In case of extreme stress, anxiety, or suicidal behavior short-term hospitalization is also preferred.
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Cluster B personality disorders
psychotherapy, medications, and group, peer, and family support.
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