Borderline Personality Disorder: Causes, Symptoms, Risk Factors

A borderline personality disorder is a disorder of mental health that interferes with thinking and feeling about yourself and other people, making it challenging to carry out daily activities as usual. It includes a pattern of unpredictable behavior and emotions, problems with self-image, and difficulties managing relationships.

If you have borderline personality disorder, you may fear instability or abandonment deeply and find it difficult to accept being by yourself. Impulsivity, inappropriate anger, and mood swings can push people away, even if your goal is to create long-lasting and meaningful relationships.

Borderline personality disorder usually first appears in early adulthood. Although the condition may gradually become better as one age, young adulthood seems to be the worst time for it.

Do not give up if you are diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Many sufferers of this illness recover over time with treatment and can learn to live satisfying lives.

Causes Of Borderline Personality Disorder 

Like other mental health issues, the precise causes of borderline personality disorder are unknown. In addition to exogenous factors such as prior experiences of child abuse or neglect, borderline personality disorder may also be linked to:

• Inheritable characteristics: Certain research on twins and families suggests that personality disorders may be inherited or closely associated with other mental health disorders in family members.
• Abnormal mental activity: A few studies have shown changes in the brain areas linked to emotion regulation, impulsivity, and violence. Moreover, problems with the brain chemicals serotonin and other neurotransmitters that help regulate mood may arise.

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Symptoms Of Borderline Personality Disorder 

Behaviour, interpersonal interactions, and self-perception all vary in a person with borderline personality disorder. Some of the signs and symptoms include:

• Severe fear of being abandoned, to the extent of acting impulsively to avoid rejection or separation real or imagined.
• A pattern of inconsistent, intense connections in which someone is viewed as ideal at one time and then as callous or heartless at another
• Brief periods of stress-related psychosis and disassociation from reality, lasting anywhere from a few minutes to many hours, during which time one may experience rapid changes in one's self-identity and self-image, such as altering goals and morals and believing oneself to be terrible or nonexistent.
• Broad mood swings that can include extreme happiness, irritation, humiliation, or anxiety and persist for a few hours to a few days; impulsive and dangerous behaviors, such as gambling, careless driving, risky relationships, spending sprees, binge eating, drug misuse, or undermining one's chances of success by abruptly quitting a successful job or ending a positive relationship; suicidal thoughts, actions, frequent screaming, sarcastic or bitter behavior, or engaging in violent altercations

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Risk Factors Of Borderline Personality Disorder 

Certain features of personality development may increase the risk of developing borderline personality disorder. These include:

• Hereditary characteristics: You may be more susceptible if any of your immediate relatives your mother, father, brother, or sister have the same disorder or one similar to it.
• Stressful upbringing: Many affected persons report having been abused or neglected as children, either physically or sexually. Some people lost or were split up from a parent or close carer when they were young, or they had parents or carers who overindulged in drugs or had other mental health issues. Some have experienced severe arguments and unstable family relationships.

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Diagnosis Of Borderline Personality Disorder 

Personality disorders like borderline personality disorder are diagnosed with the use of :

• A comprehensive discussion with your doctor or mental health specialist for psychological evaluation, which may entail survey completion, medical examination, and history
• Describing your signs and symptoms

Usually, adults not children or teenagers are diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. This is because behaviours that initially seem to suggest a child may have borderline personality disorder may go away as the child becomes older and more mature.

Also Read: Schizophrenia: History, Etiology, Symptoms For NEET PG

Treatment Of Borderline Personality Disorder 

The main treatment for borderline personality disorder is psychotherapy, though medications may also be employed. Your doctor may also suggest that you check into a hospital if you feel that your safety is in jeopardy.

During treatment, coping strategies and methods for managing your disease can be learned. Any other mental health issues that typically accompany borderline personality disorder, such as depression or substance misuse, also need to be treated. With treatment, you can live a more secure, satisfying life and feel better about yourself.

Psychotherapy

Talk therapy, often known as psychotherapy, is a fundamental component of borderline personality disorder treatment. Your therapist may adjust the type of therapy to best suit your needs. Psychotherapy is meant to help you with:

• Focus on how you are currently able to function.
• Develop the capacity to regulate painful emotions
• You can reduce your impulsivity by being encouraged to analyze your feelings instead of acting on them.
• By being aware of your own and other people's feelings, concentrate on fortifying your relationships with them.
• Study about borderline personality disorders.

Successful psychotherapy modalities that have been demonstrated include:

• Dialectical behavioral treatment (DBT): DBT includes individual and group therapy designed specifically to address borderline personality disorder. Using a skills-based approach, DBT teaches you how to manage your emotions, put up with discomfort, and improve your relationships.
• Schema-centered therapy: Schema-focused individual or group therapy may be provided. It can help you identify unmet needs that have led to undesirable life patterns that, although they might have been required for survival in the past, have badly impacted you in many areas of your adult life.
• Mentalization-based treatment (MBT): MBT is a type of talk therapy that helps you identify your thoughts and feelings at every given moment and create a new perspective on the situation. MBT puts logic ahead of gut feeling.
• Training in emotional stability and problem-solving techniques (STEPPS): You will work in groups with family members, carers, friends, or significant others during the 20-week STEPPS therapy curriculum. 
• Transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP): Often referred to as psychodynamic psychotherapy, TFP builds a rapport between you and your therapist to better understand your emotions and social difficulties. You then apply these realizations to current situations.
• Professional Mental Health care: Case management, the foundation of this therapeutic approach, grounds treatment in the necessity of attendance at work or school. Its main objective is to interpret emotionally taxing events by considering the interpersonal context of emotions. It is possible to combine medication, family education, groups, and individual treatment.

Medications

While there are currently no drugs specifically authorized by the FDA to treat borderline personality disorder, some medications may be able to help with symptoms or co-occurring conditions like impulsivity, anger, depression, or anxiety. Among the drugs are mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, and antidepressants.

Ask your doctor about the benefits and drawbacks of taking any particular medication.

Occasionally, you could need more intensive care in a clinic or mental health center. Being admitted to the hospital can also assist you in overcoming suicidal ideas or actions as well as avoiding self-harm.

Learning to regulate your thoughts, emotions, and behavior takes time. Certain symptoms of borderline personality disorder may never go away, even though most patients experience noticeable improvements. There may be times when your symptoms get better or worse. Therapy, however, can improve your functioning and raise your self-esteem.

You will have the best chance of success if you consult with a mental health expert who has treated borderline personality disorder.

Also Read: Depression - Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment - NEET PG Psychiatry

Complications Of Borderline Personality Disorder 

If you have borderline personality disorder, your life may suffer in a variety of ways. It may negatively affect connections with others, the workplace, education, intimate relationships, and one's self-perception, which may result in:

• Frequent changes or loss of jobs
• Not completing your education
• Several legal issues, such as jail time, volatile partnerships, marital stress, or divorce
• Self-harm, such as cutting or burning oneself, and recurrent hospitalization
• Taking part in abusive relationships
• Automobile accidents, unwanted pregnancies, STDs, violent altercations caused by hasty and unsafe behavior, attempted or actualized suicide

It's also possible that you have additional mental health issues such as:

• Depressive conditions
• Alcohol and other substance abuse
• Anxiety issues
• Food-related problems
• Manic states
• Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD
• Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder is known as ADHD.

Also Read: Social Anxiety Disorder: Causes, Symptoms, Risk Factors, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prevention and Complications

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