Borderline Personality Disorders

ESSAY BY AINSLEY KERR

What is a Borderline Personality Disorder?

Medically, Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a personality disorder described as a prolonged disturbance of personality function in a person. The problem lies in the cerebral cortex, the part of the brain responsible for (among other things) problem solving, decision-making, emotions, and control of purposeful behaviors. If you were to use an MRI to compare the brain of a person with BPD to that a normally functioning person you would see an obvious difference; in the person with BPD the parts controlling emotion would be overactive, and the parts controlling reasoning and logical thought would be underactive. The level of neurotransmitters that control how we think, reason and process information, control emotion, and control impulses, would also be either too high, too low, or have some other impairment. As a result of this, the person does not have the same autonomic control over their emotions as a regular person.

How does a person with BPD act?

As there are different levels of severity with BPD the ways people cope with it (or dont cope with it) vary as well.

How do you tell if a person has BPD?

A person with BPD will have a majority of the following symptoms; Frantic efforts to avoid real or imaginary abandonment A history of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships (characterized by alternating between extremes of idealizing and devaluation) Identity disturbance (such as a significant and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self) Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating) Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior Emotional instability due to significant reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic, dysphoria, irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days) Chronic feelings of emptiness Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights) Transient, stress-related paranoid thoughts or severe dissociative symptoms As with all personality disorders, a person cannot be diagnosed with BPD until they are eighteen years old (several of these symptoms are common in adolescents and particularly teenagers). Some psychiatrists argue that the varieties of symptoms are too extensive for BPD to be classified as a single mental illness. Its also very common for a person with BPD to suffer from other mental disorders at the same time, such as depression, anxiety disorders, or narcissistic, passive aggressive, or antisocial personality disorders. However, there are a variety of certain symptoms that are present in all persons with BPD. Consequently, BPD has remained as one mental disorder but has been organized into categories of severity depending on how debilitating the symptoms present are to the

persons everyday living. Typically a person is diagnosed if or when close friends of family members recognize that there is something wrong with the way they are acting. A person with BPD has usually had symptoms for years and is deeply rooted in their problems and will not realize that their perception is abnormal. Because of this, they usually will not seek help for themselves.

What is seeking help?

There is no magic cure for BPD. Were a person with BPD to look for treatment there would be a variety of drugs available for specific symptoms, but because of the complexity of BPD, no one single drug or quick fix, so to speak. The medications include antipsychotics, antidepressants, mood stabilizers, and supplements of omega 3 which have shown to reduce aggressiveness in people with BPD. Its true that the drugs can make life significantly easier for those with BPD. However its therapy, not medication, which is most highly recommended. Therapists with clients who have BPD focus on offering stability to contrast their fluctuating emotion and way of thinking. They work with their clients with the goal of developing coping strategies, learning to regulate their emotions, long standing ways of coping with the world, social and personal relationships, and handling stress. Therapists often shy away from working with people with BPD because the clients often draw out negative emotions and working with them can be an upsetting process. Therapists working with a person with BPD have to deal with constant suicidal gestures, thoughts, behaviors, and self mutilation. There is often controversy over what overmedicating would mean to a person with BPD, as a combination of drugs would be required to significantly decrease the majority of symptoms. Overall, psychotherapy comes most highly recommended.

How do you get BPD? Although BPD occurs mostly in early adulthood, the exact cause is not known. Genetic, family, and social/environment matters are thought to be factors in its development. It is very common for a person with BPD to have had some kind of traumatic life experience (ex have been abused, ) BPD is not contagious.