Talk to Me about Borderline Personality Disorder

[goldberry]

I always heard of it in a very negative context.  Also, I read that some things that seem to say this is not a chemical imbalance, but a set of behavioral issues.  This seems really weird to me.  How is it different then from any other set of undesirable behavioral issues?  I'm very confused about it.  (please excuse if my uneducated comments are offensive, I need more information to try to understand this.)

[maize]

Marsha Linehan, credited with developing the most successful treatment for BPD, struggled with the disorder herself. Reading about her experience and the treatment she developed could be a good starting point.

https://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/06/27/marsha-linehan-acknowledges-her-own-struggle-with-borderline-personality-disorder/

 

 

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/health/23lives.html?_r=0&referer=

Edited March 23, 2017 by maize

[Carrie12345]

My limited understanding has me seeing it as more of... a compulsion.  There are a lot of overlaps with NPD, but the main difference I've seen between my two relatives is the the BPD is more self-destructive with collateral damage than other-destructive with personal gains.  My BPD relative (diagnosed and accepting of the diagnosis) acknowledges that she's always known her behaviors were "wrong" (to put it mildly), but it's like she doesn't know how to be able to operate in healthy ways.  Able being the key word.  She knows OF healthy ways, they just didn't seem doable. Or applicable to her perceived situations. Or as comfortable, straightforward, and easy as a negative behavior would be.  And, at least how I see it with her specifically, probably a hefty dose of hopelessness and lack of self-worth that made more difficult, healthier behaviors appear pointless in the big picture.

 

It's been a long time since neurology was one of my bigger special interests, but I read a lot about brains and their pathways and rerouting during my homemade crash course into ASDs when ds was first dx'ed on the spectrum.  Knowing my BPD relative so well and so long, I can see how things have changed over time (including since treatment) and where certain stages may have started to make physiological changes, and how they were probably influenced by additional bio-chemical issues. She was diagnosed bipolar long before borderline, so they're not entirely separate in my only experience.

 

It's a very sad thing.  But she is making more progress with multifaceted treatment than she had with medication alone.

[maize]

It seems to me that BPD can result from volatile and painful emotions (brain based or circumstance based) combined with a lack of effective coping skills. The person ends up adopting a host of ineffective and often harmful behaviours in an attempt to cope with the painful emotions.

 

DBT focuses on helping the individual gain more appropriate and effective coping skills.

Edited March 24, 2017 by maize

[Katy]

It often goes hand in hand with severe depression or bipolar, so it can be a manifestation of a chemical imbalance.  But technically, it's a set of behaviors.  They refuse to take responsibility for anything, they put people on a pedestal, but unlike the golden child phenomenon of NPD, they'll idealize one person until they suddenly fall from grace, when then everything is their fault and they can do nothing right.  Someone else is responsible for their emotional state and their behavior at all times.  Those in their lives are manipulated and blamed and after a year or two of being on a pedestal it's easy to believe them when you suddenly did something wrong.  It can take a while to figure out that the problem is them, not you.  Until then they make everything so emotionally volatile that you feel like you're walking on eggshells all the time.  They are also extremely secretive and lie almost compulsively.  They are also charming so you're not so aware you're being manipulated until you see them with someone else and realize around others they act like a completely different person.

 

Personally it seems to me that the symptoms of personality disorders have a great deal of overlap. I imagine any given person who clearly has a cluster B personality disorder would be diagnosed with different ones, depending on how they interact with a particular mental health professional and who shows up and talks to the doctor about them.

 

 

[Bluegoat]

I have some BPD family members.  I think of it as something moreclosely related to formative circumstances that what I think of as mental illnesses.  Though even there I think there is a lot of overlap.

 

In the end my view is that with personality disorders, things like PTSD, and even to some extent more traditional mental illness, we are really naming things based on best guesses  - it's very possible we will change the names, how we group behaviors, what we see as causes, as time goes on.