BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER
The Borderline personality disorder is a mood disorder and it affects the way people interact with others. It’s one of the most widely recognized personality disorders. People with a personality disorder will think, act, feel, or relate to various ideas in a different manner when compared to a regular person.
SYMPTOMS
It can be hard to pinpoint all the Borderline personality disorder symptoms, but they are usually grouped in 4 major areas. You will notice signs of emotional instability, an impulsive behavior, unstable relationships with other people, and some disturbed perception/thinking patterns. These symptoms can appear in adolescence or adulthood, but they will usually persist for many years.
What causes the Borderline personality disorder?
The Borderline personality disorder causes are extremely hard to identify, but like most disorders these also have a combination of environmental and genetic factors. Trauma and traumatic events are heavily related to BPD. Altered levels of serotonin in the brain can also lead to this disorder. And there are situations related to brain development that can also be a sign of this particular problem.
How can you treat the Borderline personality disorder?
People suffering from Borderline personality disorder benefit from both medical and psychological treatment. Psychotherapy is one of the best options in this regard, especially if it’s carried out by medical professionals with a lot of experience. A proper BPD treatment will last for more than a year, so try to keep that in mind. as time goes by the BPD symptoms will pass, but ongoing treatment is required in order to surpass this problem. At times symptoms can return, in those situations you will need additional treatments.
Is Borderline personality disorder linked to suicide attempts?
According to data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), around 80% of those persons with BPD are reporting a history of suicide attempts. Suicide deaths related to BPD are around 8-10% out of that number. There are many reasons why people with Borderline personality disorder are attempting suicide. Some of them see this as self-punishment, others see it as a plea for help or attention. It can also be a way to shift the pain from mental to physical, to feel something more real, to express frustration or anger, and so on. According to data from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink, 2384 suicides were matched to 46899 people. So as you can see, this is quite the issue in the UK, but a similar situation appears all over the world.
The Borderline personality disorder ends up bringing in feelings of detachment and emptiness, there are situations when it will even lead to paranoia. There are researchers putting the number of BPD patients to around 6% of the total population. But not everyone will experience heavy Borderline personality disorder issues, in most cases, it ends up being something incipient. Still, BPD is more common than we realize, yet it won’t be dangerous unless a person deals with severe stress and trauma, which can trigger major BPD problems. This is why it can be very important to attempt a treatment as soon as you identify any symptoms. These seem very simple in the end, but the situation can get worse very fast, so you have to tackle it the best way that you can and avoid any possible problems as quickly as possible.
How can you treat the Borderline personality disorder?
Yes, and it has many chances of success. It all comes down to the way it’s implemented, and most of the time the best way to deal with it is to use dialectical behaviour therapy or DBT.
Nowadays DBT is the gold standard of BPD treatments, but psychotherapy is just as helpful and efficient, you just have to make the most out of it. There’s also new research into the neural changes related to BPD, which shows that targeted pharmacological therapies can be used to normalize the neural functions. And this type of system can be used to help people that have BPD as they restore their behavioral balance, emotional balance and also optimize the DBT efficacy.
Even if a person has BPD, this problem can be treated. But depending on the situation, it can take a few years until everything is handled correctly. While the process is time-consuming, it will deliver amazing results and it will bring in front a stellar set of results. However, BPD patients can experience symptom remission, so that can be a bit problematic. Which is why it’s important for the BPD patient to work closely with a doctor and track as well as manage all symptoms adequately.