Borderline Personality Disorder

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Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a mental disorder that often causes problems with emotional stability, relationships with friends or family, and poor self images (Nairne, 2014). Emotional dysregulation is a person’s inability to control their emotions for example; a person will be happy for a period of time and then suddenly burst out into uncontrollable anger. People with BPD have a difficult time maintaining relationships and jobs because those sudden mood swings drive people away; as a result they are often lonely. The poor self image is also a very important part of the disorder because it drives people to do something they wouldn’t normally do. There have been advances to change the name of BPD to Emotion dysregulation disorder, but it wasn’t changed in the DSM-5 (NAMI, 2012). BPD was first recognized as a personality disorder by the American Psychological Association in 1980. A personality disorder is defined as a chronic or enduring pattern of behavior that lead to significant impairment in social functioning (Nairne, 2014). People with BPD are very sensitive to rejection, which causes them to react with intense rage or anger. It is their sudden outbursts of anger and rage. They are always in constant fear of being left alone, but really it is them that end up leaving people because of their inability to control their emotions. As pointed out by a former BPD sufferer Dr. Marsha Linehan, borderlines are just like patients who suffer from third degree burns. They don’t have the emotional skin to deal with what people say to them (Hal Arkowitz, 2011). Borderline sufferers are so sensitive to anything they hear or see that people have to be careful around them. They constantly have different views about people, one m... ... middle of paper ... ... Dr. Marsha Linehan had BPD when she was a teenager but her condition eventually improved and she was able to earn a Ph.D and study the disorder that troubled her teen years. Another sign of hope for borderlines is that it is the most researched out of all personality disorders (Hal Arkowitz, 2011). In conclusion, Borderline personality disorder is a mental illness that severely affects a person’s sense of self, emotions and relationships. BPD does not just affect the person who is suffering, but also the people around him/her. In recent years many studies have been dedicated to helping borderlines recover from their symptoms and fully recover from this illness. For some people BPD does not follow them for their whole lives and they get better with age. People with BPD should not be discouraged because there is a lot of help coming their way, if they accept it.

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