What is borderline personality disorder?

The disorder personality limit (BPD) is a complex syndrome that has to do with emotional instability and the impulse control. This disorder stands out for the wide heterogeneity of its symptoms, perhaps for this reason it is also known as “since it is classified between two broad categories of mental disorders: psychosis and neuroses.

Main symptoms of BPD

Borderline personality disorder not only manifests itself through various symptoms, it also highlights the variety of associated disorders: depression,,, substance abuse, eating disorders ... And because of the high rate of self-harm and; between 8 and 10% of patients.

The most common symptoms, which can begin to appear in childhood, are:

• Frantic attempts to avoid real or imagined abandonment.
• Intense and unstable interpersonal relationships, marked by an alternation between idealization and devaluation.
• Alteration of identity: highly unstable self-image and sense of self.
• Impulsiveness in at least two potentially self-injurious areas, eg substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating, compulsive sexual intercourse, economic waste ...
• Intense behaviors or attitudes, threats of suicide or self-harm.
• Affective instability: changes in mood that oscillate in hours or days.
• Chronic feelings of emptiness.
• Intense anger or difficulties to control it (yelling, anger, fights ...).
• Paranoid ideas due to stress or dissociative symptoms.

What are the causes?

The Causes of BPD have to do with:, neurophysiological and biochemical. But also with environmental factors, that is, learned from childhood on a family and social level. Among the latter, the following stand out:

• Dissociated family life.
• Poor communication in the family.
• Abandonment or fear of abandonment in childhood or adolescence.
• Sexual, physical, or emotional abuse.

Patient characteristics

BPD affects 2% of the adult population, It usually manifests itself at the end of adolescence or early adult life and affects both genders equally, although it is diagnosed more in women for cultural reasons:

• On the one hand, because the expression of emotions it is still more accepted at the social level in women than in men.
• On the other hand, the expression of aggressiveness in women it tends to be more oriented towards oneself (self-aggressiveness) and in men towards the outside (hetero-aggressiveness), which tends to give rise to wrong diagnoses in men.

Tips for relating to people with BPD

People with BPD are often demonized, since, due to the very characteristics of their problem, they usually have important difficulties in communication and closeness to others, which gives rise to various difficulties.

Empathize with their situation

Try to understand what is behind the destructive behaviors of these people. Usually there are fears, anguish, disappointment, guilt for previous failures ... Sometimes problem behaviors are a desperate way of asking for help or expressing discomfort. Help him communicate it in a more constructive way.

Redefine the way you understand your problems

Destruction is a failed construction attempt. Many times self-harm is socially interpreted as “attention calls" or with "handling”, Which makes the people in the environment feel used and therefore move away. This confirms one of the greatest fears of the person with BPD, abandonment. Self-aggression is a way to:

• Atone for guilt ("I am worth nothing, I deserve to suffer").
• Feeling alive, even if it is suffering (when there is a great emotional disconnection).
• Focus the pain externally and not psychologically.

Be flexible, but keep your posture

Behind the supposedly selfish or dramatic behaviors is an attempt to self-regulate emotionally. Remember that people with borderline personality disorder they are the ones who suffer the most since they end up paying the consequences of their actions.

Remind him that improvement is possible

Listen to his needs and help him create possibilities. It is not true that people with BPD never change, but for it to be possible the conditions need to be created. It is also important to receive such as that offered by MAPFRE. Some of the topics that are usually covered They are: identity, emotional regulation, limits, communication and coping strategies, self-care, etc.

• BPD affects 2% of the adult population.
• It stands out for the wide variety of associated disorders and also for the high rate of self-harm and suicide.
• It is not true that people with BPD never change, but for it to be possible the conditions need to be created. Strong psychotherapeutic support is also important.

Specialist in Clinical Psychology