Do You, or Someone You Love, Have Borderline Personality Disorder
Symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder
Trying to determine if you or someone in your life may suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder?
You will soon find out, however, that this is a complex question. There are no simple behavioral checklists; no definitive tests. Identifying Borderline Personality Disorder requires having a working knowledge of the disorder and
some insight into the past life of the person in question.
Borderline Personality Disorder is a disorder of the emotions. Imagine a person who is extremely sensitive to rejection (fearful of even perceived or anticipated rejection) and has a limited ability to modulate their emotional impulses (love, fear, anger, grief, etc.). To protect themselves from their own feelings, they are prone to adopt a multitude of dysfunctional rationalizations and cover-ups. For example, a person suffering from BPD may so fear rejection in a new relationship that they recreate themselves in the image of a person they believe would be lovable. When the negative emotions for making such a sacrifice surface – and not having the ability to modulate them, they lash out at the target of their affections for “making them do it” – rather than face their own feelings of inadequacy / fear of rejection, ultimately damaging the relationship they so fear losing, and reinforcing their feelings of inadequacy / fear of rejection.
What is going on in a Borderline Personality Disorder sufferer’s mind and how they are acting can be two entirely different things.
To the sufferer, BPD is about deep feelings, feelings often too difficult to express, feelings that are something along the lines of this:
If others really get to know me, they will find me rejectable and will not be
able to love me; and they will leave me;
I need to have complete control of my feelings otherwise things go
completely wrong;
I have to adapt my needs to other people’s wishes, otherwise they will
leave me or attack me;
I am an evil person and I need to be punished for it;
Other people are evil and abuse you;
If someone fails to keep a promise, that person can no longer be trusted;
If I trust someone, I run a great risk of getting hurt or disappointed;
If you comply with someone’s request, you run the risk of losing yourself;
If you refuse someone’s request, you run the risk of losing that person;
I will always be alone;
I can’t manage by myself, I need someone I can fall back on;
There is no one who really cares about me, who will be available to help
me, and whom I can fall back on;
I don’t really know what I want;
I will never get what I want;
I’m powerless and vulnerable and I can’t protect myself;.
I have no control of myself;
I can’t discipline myself;
My feelings and opinions are unfounded;
Other people are not willing or helpful.
To the family members, BPD behavior is often very frustrating can feel unfair and punitive – something like this:
You have been viewed as overly good and then overly bad; You have been the focus of unprovoked anger or hurtful actions, alternating with periods when the family member acts perfectly normal and very loving; Things that you have said or done have been twisted and used against you; You are accused of things you never did or said? You often find yourself defending and justifying your intentions; You find yourself concealing what you think or feel because you are not heard; You feel manipulated, controlled, and sometimes lied to.
Read the full article here: BORDERLINE_PERSONALITY_DISORDER
Author: Dr Susan Kriegler