Border line personality disorder symptoms will vary between different people, but they largely affect certain key facets of a patient’s behavior including interpersonal relationships and emotional stability, which is why the condition is also known as Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder.
What is borderline personality disorder?
Borderline personality disorder is relatively uncommon and only affects less than one percent of the general population, and of those, nearly three quarters will be women. It is considered a psychiatric disorder and is normally diagnosed when a patient exhibits and is significantly affected by more than five of the recognized symptoms of the disorder.
Mental health professionals consider it a serious condition an as many as sixty percent of those patients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder will regularly self-harm or have attempted suicide at some point. Patients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder are also more likely to suffer from other related mental health conditions such as depression, eating disorders so substance abuse.
What are the border line personality disorder symptoms?
Most of the symptoms of borderline personality disorder affect the patient’s mood, which has a knock-on effect on their interpersonal relationships. Emotional instability is one major symptom of the disorder and patients with borderline personality disorder will suffer from wildly fluctuating emotions that run the whole spectrum from deliriously happy to suicidal, all within a very short space of time.
The emotionally instability usually profoundly affects relationships and a patient with borderline personality disorder will have difficulty forming and maintaining relationships. Relationships that are formed are often all consuming and very intense. Patients will also cling on to unsuitable relationships rather than end them because of low self worth. Such relationships are often full of great angst, and while intense love/hate bonds might be the stuff of Hollywood movies, it is extremely wearing for those who have to deal with a patient suffering from borderline personality disorder.
A tendency towards impulsive behavior and taking huge risks with no regard for self worth is a very common trait seen in those suffering from borderline personality disorder. The painful emotional instability often leads to self-harming and suicide attempts, which more often than not is a cry for help rather than a genuine desire to end life. As a result, patients with borderline personality disorder are far more likely to attempt suicide than other comparable mental disorders.
Patients with borderline personality disorder are also quite likely to have associated problems with alcohol and drug abuse, which only serves to exacerbate the emotional problems they suffer from.
In chronic cases of borderline personality disorder, disturbed thought patterns occur and patients can be delusional and suffer from hallucinations. This can range from the patient feeling worthless and disconnected to life and the people around them, to psychotic episodes, extreme paranoia, and hearing voices in their head.
Can border line personality disorder symptoms be treated?
There are various avenues of treatment for patients suffering from borderline personality disorder. These include cognitive therapy and other types of psychotherapy, to drug treatment such as antidepressants, anticonvulsants and antipsychotics.
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