Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is not talked about as other mental health disorders. It is estimated that 1.6% of the adult population has BPD, that number may be as high as 5.9%. Nearly 75% of people diagnosed with BPD are women. Recent research suggests that men may be equally affected by BPD but commonly misdiagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or depression.
What is Borderline Personality Disorder?
Borderline Personality Disorder is a mental health disorder that affects how you feel about yourself and how you react to the world around you. People who have been diagnosed with BPD have patterns of behavior of unstable intense relationships, distorted self-image, extreme emotions and impulsiveness. BPD can only be diagnosed by a Mental Health expert or medical doctor using the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Addition).
How to Know if you have Borderline Personality Disorder
Listed below is the Criteria listed in the DSM-IV used by mental health experts and medical doctors to diagnose BPD:
- A pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:
- Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment.
- A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation
- Identity disturbance: markedly 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
- Affective instability due to marked reactivity of (e.g., calm 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 ideation or severe dissociative symptoms
DBT Therapy in McKinney, TX – Exult Healthcare
Do not be discouraged if you have been diagnosed with BPD. There is help for you with treatment. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is probably the most common way to treat BPD. DBT is a combination of cognitive and behavioral therapies. The goal of DBT is to transform negative thinking and destructive behaviors and turn them into positive outcomes. Click here to learn more.
Written by: Piper Kieser – Therapist
