What is borderline personality disorder like?

I spoke to a person who is a counseller on msn and I spoke to her about self harm. She said that people who self harm could have borderline personality disorder. Is this true? She told me to go back to my gp to have a border personality disorder assessement. Anyway is it true what she said? What is it like having borderline personality disorder? I haven't been diagnosed but I wanted to know what it's like to see whether I have any signs of bpd.

Hi, happycheeks, see if this helps make it clearer for you:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/emotiona...s_person.shtml

Thank you

Hello, happycheeks. Another article that may be helpful:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/bor...2/METHOD=print

Thanks for the link ^_^

I guess I just want to point out that not all people who self harm have BPD, equally not all people who have BPD self harm either.

Also, please get a real diagnosis or speak to a psychiatrist/therapist if you have concerns about yourself (which you obviously do). MSN isn't the place to be jumping to conclusions!

Having the bpd diagnosis doesn't change who you are. So if you do have bpd, it doesn't feel any different from how you feel now. The symptoms of bpd have made my life very hard, but nothing changed when I got the diagnosis, I am still the same person.

Regardless of whether BPD is the problem, if your symptoms are having a detrimental effect on your life and you want help, your GP will be able to help you. They will decide on what assessments and stuff to do, since they have the right contacts and resources. I think your symptoms are more important than your diagnosis or suspected diagnosis, since they are what needs to be treated.

Thank you for your reply. I don't think I have it.

There was a period for about 3 years where I tried to kill myself regularly and was hospitalized multiple times. A psychiatrist once told me he thought I was borderline, which was the first time I heard of the disorder.

I have read A LOT about BPD, and all these years later, I'm still not 100% sure I have it or not. Sometimes I think I do, other times not so much. I haven't tried to kill myself in over three years, and when I was, it was mostly a resistance to a major life change at a young age (death of a parent + rejection from my family for being depressed and smoking pot to cope).

These days, I have some symptoms of BPD, but I can't tell if they are just appropiate experiences/feelings for the context I'm in, or if I actually have a disorder. It depends on what's going on. But I don't have 'episodes' as frequently as I used to. Maybe once every couple of months I'll get really down for a few days, but not to the point where I think about killing myself anymore. It's just not an option these days.

Either way, I've gotten a lot better at managing my own emotions and finding healthier ways to cope, rather than try to end my life. Whether it's BPD or not doesn't matter to me anymore. I'm alive. And I never thought it would be possible that I would see this day in my life today.

*Interestingly, I lost the desire to kill myself once I stopped taking the medications that the psychiatrist who called me 'borderline' prescribed me. I also had a therapist at that time who was really ****ing rude and said I had A.D.D. Me, a top-performing college student, of all people. So I took a state IQ test and met with neurologists who said 'no, you don't have A.D.D.'. I fired him a week later, and stopped taking the pills from my psychiatrist, and have been a lot better since.

There is a Borderline Personality Disorder forum here on PC.

This is something I posted in the forum:I like this description of BPD because it is more than just a list, and I suppose because I relate to it very much. Learning more about BPD has helped me slow down the processes and find words for what is going on.

When this diagnosis is offered, it isn't always offered as an explanation for how we relate to ourselves and others and the intense emotions that result.
It is a complex way of being, as one thing affects another..affects another. It is no wonder we often feel overwhelmed.
I feel so fortunate to have a psychotherapist who understands, accepts, and is kind and patient.

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from the site: http://www.borderlinedisorders.com/public.php

The symptoms of borderline patients are similar to those for which most people seek psychiatric help: depression, mood swings, the use and abuse of drugs, alcohol, or food as a means of trying to feel better; obsessions, phobias, feelings of emptiness and loneliness, inability to tolerate being alone.

In addition, these patients displayed great difficulties in controlling ragefulness; they were unusually impulsive, they fell in and out of love suddenly; they tended to idealize other people and then abruptly despise them. A consequence of all this was that they typically looked for help from a therapist and then suddenly quit in terrible disappointment and anger.

Underneath all these symptoms, therapists began to see in borderline people an inability to tolerate the levels of anxiety, frustration, rejection and loss that most people are able to put up with, an inability to soothe and comfort themselves when they become upset, and an inability to control the impulses toward the expression, through action, of love and hate that most people are able to hold in check. What seems to be of central importance in the symptoms and difficulties mentioned above is that the hallmark of the "borderline" personality is great difficulty in holding on to a stable, consistent sense of one's self: "What am I?" these people ask. "My life is in chaos; sometimes I feel like I can do anything—other times I want to die because I feel so incompetent, helpless and loathsome. I'm a lot of different people instead of being just one person."

The one word that best characterizes borderline personality is "instability." Emotions are unstable, fluctuating wildly, often for no discernible reason. Thought processes are unstable—rational and clear at times, quite extreme and distorted at other times. Behavior is unstable—often with periods of excellent conduct, high efficiency and trustworthiness alternating with outbreaks of regression to childlike states of helplessness and anger, suddenly quitting a job, withdrawing into isolation, failing.

Self control is unstable leading to impulsive behaviors and chaotic relationships. A person with borderline personality disorder may sacrifice themselves for others, only to reach their limit and suddenly fly into rageful reproaches, or they may curry favor through obedient submission only to rebel, out of the blue, in a tantrum.

Associated with this instability is terrible anxiety, guilt and self-loathing for which relief is sought at any cost—medicine, drugs, alcohol, overeating, suicide. Sadly, oddly, self-injury is discovered by many borderline people to provide faster relief than anything else—cutting or burning themselves stops the anxiety temporarily.

The effect upon others of all this trouble is profound: family members never know what to expect from their volatile child, siblings, or spouse, except they know they can expect trouble: suicide threats and attempts, self-inflicted injuries, outbursts of rage and recrimination, impulsive marriages, divorces, pregnancies and abortions; repeated starting and stopping of jobs and school careers, and a pervasive sense, on the part of the family, of being unable to help.

And this is a thread in that forum that is honest and often funny:
http://forums.psychcentral.com/showthread.php?t=165897

Thank you for your replies

Hello happycheeks ~ My shrink informed me that one can be "borderline" if you meet 5 on the list of symptoms. Keep in mind that borderline became a dumping ground for doctors who could not fit a patient into a category. It is also a term that has led me down a very difficult path. I have been dumped by numerous therapists who refused to treat me due to my psychiatrist's dx of borderline. I have advocated strongly against this dx. True I have some of the traits but not all of them, and many of the items on the list can be from other diagnoses. Every psychiatrist has varied opinions about Borderline. I was informed that when the new DSM-V comes out, Borderline will be changed to a new name to get away from the stigma that Borderline has done to many people.

this was great information!!