Borderline personality disorder is a mental health disorder that affects how you think and feel about yourself and others which leads to problems in a person’s daily life. It includes problems with a person’s self-perception, difficulty controlling feelings and behaviour, and frequent relationship disturbances.
With borderline personality disorder, one has an intense fear of abandonment or instability, and one may have difficulty tolerating loneliness. But intense anger, impulsivity, and volatile moods push others to turn away from one even though he wants to feel loved and have lasting relationships.
Borderline personality disorder usually begins with the onset of adulthood. This condition appears to get worse in young adulthood and may gradually improve with age.
If you have borderline personality disorder, don’t be overwhelmed. Many people with this disorder improve over time and can learn to live a fulfilling life.
Signs and symptoms may include:
1. Fear of abandonment, it may urge you to take violent measures to avoid real or imagined separation or rejection.
2. An unstable pattern of emotional relationships, such as venerating someone intensely and in the next moment getting convinced that they are a careless or cruel person.
3. Rapid changes in a person’s self-image and identity, including changing values and goals, and the feeling that you are a bad person or that your existence has no value at all.
4. Episodes of stress-related phobias and a loss of contact with reality, lasting from several minutes to several hours.
5. Reckless and impulsive behaviour.
6. Tendency to suicidal thoughts and behaviours and self-harm, often as a result of fear of separation or rejection.
7. Violent mood swings that last for hours or days which are overwhelming happiness, distress, and feelings of shame or anxiety.
8. A constant feeling of emptiness.
9. Loss of nerves as a result of severe anger, and the resulting inappropriate behaviour, such as being sarcastic and sharp-talking, or entering into a physical quarrel with someone.
Psychotherapy:
Psychotherapy, also called talk therapy, is the primary treatment method for borderline personality disorder. A therapist may adapt the type of treatment that best meets your needs. The goals of psychological therapy are to help you:
1. Focus on your current ability to perform your responsibilities.
2. Learn to control upsetting emotions.
3. Reducing impulsivity by preserving the emotion more than causing a reaction to it.
4. Work on improving relationships by being aware of your own feelings and those of others.
5. Knowledge about borderline personality disorder.
Now that you have an idea about the last point, get up, call a therapist, and get the other four out of the way!
* The author is a consultant in Public Relations and Personality Types. Instagram: @Tipsbyhalahill
Hala Bader al-Humaidhi
