What´s Borderline Personality Disorder?

Borderline Personality Disorder

Have you ever been driving down a highway and suddenly can’t remember the last few miles? This light form of a common psychological phenomenon experienced by most people is called dissociation. People diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder often dissociate much more severely as a defense mechanism. Borderline Personality Disorder is a debilitating mental illness marked by emotional, behavioral, and relational instability; patients with BPD often make desperate attempts to avoid being abandoned, called “defense mechanisms”.

Emotional instability can be seen in extreme mood swings – episodes of intense irritability, dysphoria, and anxiety (Bayer 46). The borderline personality may alternate among fragile,

They may abuse substances, gamble often, drive recklessly, or spend money carelessly. BPD patients are extreme risk takers and are constantly seeking new things to do (Bayer 47). Some behavior seen in Borderline patients is exceedingly self-damaging. This type of behavior ranges from sabotaging relationships, and skipping graduation to wrecking accomplishments at work. Even worse, BPD patients may damage themselves physically by burning or cutting their skin; suicide attempts are also prevalent. Around 8-10 percent of BPD patients actually kill themselves (Bayer 47). In other instances, life long handicaps are results from self-inflicted abuse or failed suicide attempts. Behavioral discrepancies in patients are often brought on by other’s threat of separation and rejection or by an expectation that a BPD patient must undertake greater responsibility (Bayer 47).

A pattern of volatile, intense relations regularly accompanies Borderline Personality Disorder (Bayer 45). When meeting new people, Borderlines often idealize them as their prospective friend, caregiver, or significant other. However when the new person fails to meet the patient’s impractical desires, anger and demanding behavior set in. BPD patients are far quicker to reveal intricate details about themselves with virtual strangers than non-borderline people

Emotional withdrawal is common when the parent of a Borderline is also suffering from the disorder. For example, a mother dreading rejection from their child may defend herself by withdrawing emotionally, and the absence of the child’s mother causes the child to become even more needy, so to guard themselves from abandonment, they learn to withdraw too (Bayer 47). Another defense mechanism used by Borderlines is referred to as splitting. In this situation the ‘part objects’ (good and bad) substitute psychologically for the whole person, who has both assets and weaknesses. The patient learns to separate their ‘good’ self from their ‘bad’ self, and these two sources of identity become extremely detached from one another (Bayer 47). The idealized self stands in glaring contrast to the bad self, who seems to have no redeeming assets. This delusional way of seeing the world develops a routine used to secure the patient from distress and rejection. However this defense usually sets up the borderline person for repeated discouragement (Bayer