What are some of the key symptoms of borderline personality disorder?!


Question: What are some of the key symptoms of borderline personality disorder!?
Answers:
Borderline personality disorder is a long standing (usually starts in early adulthood) and pervasive pattern of maladaptive coping manifested in unstable relationships, problems with mood and impulsivity and unstable self image!. The cardinal symptoms include:

-Unstable self image
-Chronic feelings of emptiness
-Mood lability (happy one minute, sad the next with little provocation)
-Anger dysregulation (excessive poorly controlled anger)
-Impulsivity in areas with potential for self harm (drug use, binging purging, reckless sexual contact)
-Recurrent suicidality, suicide gestures/attempts (often cutting is present)
-Vacillation between extremes of idealization and devaluation (you jump into thinking someone is the best thing since sliced bread and then they do one little thing wrong and they become in your mind the worst person in the world)
-Transient stress induced paranoia or dissociative symptoms
-Fears of abandonment with recurrent attempts to avoid abandonment (cutting or threatening suicide to get someone to not leave you, etc)

Overall, this is a disorder where people have a difficult time controlling their internal emotional state, they are unsure of their own self image, they can be impulsive, and they often act in ways, unconsciously, that drive people away!. Theres an excellent book called "I hate you, don't leave me" that talks about the condition at length!.

It is important to remember that any personality disorder is something that is present for a long period of time and manifests behavior that is inflexible-the person cannot alter their coping style for different circumstances!. Some of these symptoms are commonly seen among young and immature people but that doesn't mean they have BLPD-it simply may be that they are very immature and those symptoms will improve as they learn healthier ways of coping!. Also, there are a number of what we call Axis I conditions, like depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, etc, that have symptoms that can look like BLPD!. For that reason, its important to avoid self diagnosis-its best to have a mental health professional make that call!.Www@Answer-Health@Com

Difficulty to integrate others into one's life and to set limits!.
Explosive rage, always over minor things or misperceptions!.
Self-harm (may include abusing substances and alcohol)
"Chameleon" personality--I will be whatever you want me to be, at least for a while, don't leave me!.
Desperate need to have close friendships and relationships and once in such a relationship total inability to live them out with a desperate need to escape!.
Black and white thinking, also tendency to exageration, minimization, and above all SARCASM
A painful sense of emptiness or that something is missing (often expressed as a physical sensation of emptiness in the heart or chest area) from childhood or adolescence on
There are several sub-types as well that run from the "prima donna" (male or female)-center of attention to the extremely depressed suicidal personality!.
Self-help groups like Emotions Anonymous (or AA or Narcotics Anonymous if the person is also an addict) seem to do as well if not better than medication!. It does improve with time and work!. The groups recommended probably have a local meeting which can be found on their internet pages!. The groups are free!.
Good luck!Www@Answer-Health@Com

Big on is a very black & white thought prosess!.!.!.!.!.and that spills over into a lot of things!.
As in;
You are either for them or against them!.
Things are either perfect , or everything is all wrong!.
Tend to be very emotional because of this, can get angry or upset very quickly because of something small!. Like if you say something even slightly critical, that could mean in their eyes that you are completely against them, and hate them!.Www@Answer-Health@Com

prob ocd and any other initial type labels
and much more!.Www@Answer-Health@Com





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