Borderline Personality Disorder

BPD - What Is It?

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a disorder characterized by instability in personal relationships, which is often extreme, and usually a part of long-standing pattern. A person with BPD often experiences a repetitive pattern of disorganization and instability in self-image, mood, and behavior. He or she can often be bright and intelligent, and appear warm, friendly and competent - an affected person sometimes can maintain this appearance until their defense structure crumbles, usually triggered by a stressful situation like the breakup of a marriage or the death of a parent. Borderline personalities sometimes show great difficulty in controlling rage; they are unusually impulsive, they fall in and out of love suddenly; they tend to idealize other people and then abruptly despise them. They may look for help from a mental health specialist and then suddenly quit in disappointment and anger.

Borderline Personality Disorder Definition and Symptoms

Psychiatrists and other health professionals have identified the following diagnostic criteria for BPD according to the DSM IV, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association. The specified diagnostic criteria are offered as guidelines for making diagnoses. The diagnostic criteria for BPD are as follows:

A pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

1.