Borderline Personality Disorder

What is Borderline personality disorder and how is it treated?

According to the World Health Organization, one in four individuals will be affected by some form of mental health disorder in their lifetime. Let’s take depression in adults and children, it’s something that can affect anyone at any age.

Those suffering from depression, anxiety or any other mental health issue should be able to readily find help. The problem is many never seek help because of the shame and the stigma attached to it. Don’t let this stop you from getting the help you need; anxiety treatment and other forms of treatment can only help to reduce symptoms and bring relief.

A borderline personality disorder is another mental health issue many have to deal with every day. Are you struggling with negative intense emotions and thoughts about yourself and others?

Is it starting to affect your everyday life? Problems that can be associated with personality disorder include erratic and unstable behaviour and volatile moods.

Those struggling with the disorder tend to alienate people close to them because of frequent emotional outbursts. They also find it difficult to regain a stable mood after an outburst and thus feel agitated for longer. This, unfortunately, leads to rocky relationships that don’t last. Since those suffering from Borderline personality disorder have an extreme fear of being abandoned and being alone, makes for an extremely difficult situation.

The disorder seems to show up strongly during early adulthood. Borderline personality treatment is available, so don’t despair. People who have received treatment from a professional at a mental health clinic have experienced improvements and lead relatively normal lives.

What are the symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder?

Borderline personality disorder greatly affects a person’s behaviour, with intense feelings of insecurity. Some of the symptoms to look out for include:

• Severe fear of being abandoned, which could lead to the person acting out in order to avoid a situation whether it is real or just in their imagination.
• Unstable relationships, the person has intense feelings of love one moment and hate the next.
• A wavering self-image that affects a person’s mood, goals and values
• Behaviour that is impulsive and possibly destructive, such as gambling, drugs, suddenly quitting a good job or spending too much money.
• Threatening to harm themselves or commit suicide
• Negative emotions and anxiety that last for days.
• Feelings of emptiness
• Intense anger or irritability. Losing your temper followed by guilt and shame
• A loss of identity and connection with reality, becoming paranoid.

Different types of Personality Disorder

Over the years psychiatrists have developed a system of diagnosis, which helps them to identify different personality disorders. Each type of mental health disorder can be categorized into three groups namely:

• Anxious: involves dependent, obsessive-compulsive and avoidant behaviours
• Suspicious: paranoid behaviour, as well as being antisocial with schizoid and schizotypal behaviour.
• Impulsive and emotional: Involves narcissistic, borderline and histrionic behaviour

Here are the 10 different types of personality disorder:

• We’ll begin with Borderline Personality disorder; we have already given a brief description of this. To summarize, a person who feels intense emotions, especially feelings of insecurity. They don’t know how to express themselves in a healthy way and struggle to find their way back to a feeling of normality.
• Paranoid personality disorder: Having problems trusting others and seeing threats where there aren’t any.
• Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD): Involves inappropriate and aggressive behaviour. Placing yourself in dangerous situations without considering the risks to yourself or others.
• Histrionic personality disorder: You need to be the centre of attention and crave others’ approval.
• Avoidant/anxious personality disorder: fearful of trying new things or relationships because you might embarrass yourself or be rejected. You then avoid relationships and most other social situations.
• Narcissistic personality disorder: You have an inflated sense of self-worth with little to no regard for others.
• Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD): Needs to be in control and they are usually perfectionists, imposing impossibly high standards on themselves as well as others.
• Dependent personality disorder: Can’t make decisions on their own, always needing help from others. They have very low self-confidence and see others better than themselves. Seen by others as being very submissive.
• Schizoid personality disorder: They tend to avoid all kinds of social activities and can seem cold, preferring to be alone. Relationships are seen to be too much trouble and so have very few to no close relationships.
• Schizotypal personality disorder: The person experiences social anxiety and may be classified as being eccentric. They may have unusual beliefs and find it difficult to form relationships.

Diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder

Some mental health disorders, such as borderline personality disorder, are difficult to diagnose. There are quite a few factors that need to be taken into consideration. The first step if you think you are suffering from a mental health disorder is to visit your doctor or general health practitioner. You will need to complete an evaluation and questionnaire.

Your medical history also needs to be considered and a medical exam administered so as to rule out other problems that might be causing your symptoms. You will need to discuss what your signs and symptoms are with your doctor. So, there is quite an involved process before a diagnosis can actually be made.

In most cases, a borderline personality disorder is diagnosed in adults, as symptoms that may appear to be related to the disorder may improve as a child or teenager gets older. What causes mental health disorders can sometimes be uncertain, as is the case with a borderline personality disorder.

Certain causes may be considered:

• Genetics
• Neurological issues
• Environmental
• Certain social elements
• Trauma or negative life events
• Has or does a family member also suffer from the same or similar condition.

Most likely during a psychological evaluation, the therapist will ask questions such as:

• How severe are the symptoms, are they difficult to manage?
• Does it severely impact everyday life?
• Are you experiencing suicidal thoughts?
• Do you harm yourself or do you have thoughts of harming others?

You may find when it comes to diagnosing Borderline Personality disorder, it may take weeks or longer. To reach a diagnosis you also have to have more than just two characteristics of the disorder. Many of the symptoms also have to be present for long periods of time. If you feel this is something you or a loved one is experiencing, don’t be afraid to approach your local mental health clinic for help.

Depression in adults and children or any mental health disorder is nothing to be ashamed of, getting help can only aid in improving the quality of your life.

Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder

In order to overcome the problems associated with mental health disorders and to help with certain behaviour, psychotherapy is recommended. In cases where you might be harming yourself, a therapist may recommend hospitalization in order to prevent any further harm.

This type of therapy treatment is designed to help you learn coping skills. Also, if there is any other mental health issue, this can be addressed. For instance, you may require anxiety treatment or help with depression. In other cases, some may need help with things like substance abuse. Following through with treatment will help you to live a more productive and balanced life.

Getting a person with a mental health disorder to talk about their problems is the main objective of psychotherapy. Different professional therapists may have varying methods of treatment but should ultimately come up with a treatment plan that best suits your needs.

Benefits of psychotherapy include the following:

• Improving your ability to function.
• Teaching you how to manage your emotions.
• Helping you to make better decisions instead of acting out impulsively.
• Working on building your relationships, taking note of your own emotions and the feelings of others.
• Before you were not sure of why you had these feelings and why you did what you did. By talking about it and learning what borderline personality disorder is, you are taking control of the situation. You can now get treatment and manage or even overcome the disorder.

When it comes to therapy there are various types. A therapist could recommend individual or group therapy, each focusing on developing various coping skills. The different techniques involved in psychotherapy treatment can help in various ways. Depending on your needs effective treatment can include everything from how to manage your emotions to developing interpersonal skills and helping to build relationships.

Some therapists might also include family or friends. In some cases, treatment may also involve medications, which may help with underlying issues such as depression. Recovery and healing is a process, so don’t give up.

Helping a loved one who has Borderline Personality Disorder

Do you know somebody who has a borderline personality disorder? If you do, you know how difficult it is. Forming healthy relationships is difficult because of the constant mood swings, impulsive behaviour, and anger.

Not to mention other problems that can develop like drug abuse. All of these things can be overwhelming, and it may seem like a helpless situation. You may even need to look at getting anxiety treatment for yourself. Let’s have a look at things you can do to improve your relationship before it gets to this point.

First, you can educate yourself on what Mental Health Disorders are and understand that your loved one is struggling themselves. Their reactions and behaviour come from a place of fear and emotional pain. By understanding where the person is coming from, may help you to deal with situations more constructively.

Set boundaries, tell the person what behaviour you won’t tolerate. Don’t set an ultimatum but calmly tell them that their behaviour is upsetting, and they need to make some changes.

Communication is an important factor in any relationship, what can you do?

• When you want to begin a meaningful conversation, make sure it’s when everyone is calm. It’s not the time if the person is shouting and seemingly out of control.
• Acknowledging their feelings is important and can be pivotal in helping them regain composure.
• Actively listen to what they are saying
• There might be some unpleasant words being flung about, try to put aside what is being said and focus more on the emotion behind it.
• Try to keep calm if the person is behaving badly and if necessary, walk away from the situation.
• Try having a conversation in situations that are distracting and/or calming. For instance, when exercising or gardening.
• Have conversations about other interesting topics and don’t just focus on the problem.

By seeking professional help at a mental health clinic, you will increase the chances of success in the treatment of borderline personality disorder. Treatment for mental health disorders can provide you with the skills you need in order to live a healthier life. So, if you need advice or think you might be suffering from Borderline Personality disorder, or you think a loved one is living with it. Please reach out to us at the ZwavelStream clinic, where you will get the proper support and treatment you need.