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About seventy-five percent of people diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder are women. (Gunderson, 2011) People with this disorder display great instability, including major shifts in mood, an unstable self-image and impulsivity. (APA, 2013) When combined, these characteristics can make their relationships very unstable. (Paris, 2010)
People with Borderline Personality Disorder experience going in and out of very depressive, anxious and irritable states that can last from a few hours to a few days. Their emotions seem to be in conflict with reality, and they are prone to bouts of anger, which can be accompanied by physical aggression and violence. They can just as easily direct their impulsive anger inward, inflicting bodily harm upon themselves. Many also suffer from deep feelings of emptiness, coupled with bouts of binge eating and binge shopping sprees.
Borderline Personality Disorder is complex and has become much more common in recent years. Many people who enter hospital emergency rooms for example, are individuals with this disorder who have intentionally injured themselves. Their impulsive self-destructive behaviors range from alcohol and drug abuse to delinquency, skiipping school, unsafe sex and reckless driving. (Coffey et al, 2011; Sherry & Whilde, 2008)
Sharing Self-Destructive Behaviors
As many as one in five young men and women diagnosed with this disorder have engaged at least once in some form of nonsuicidial self-injury. Many have shared their self-mutilation behaviors, such as cutting or burning themselves, hair-pulling or banging their heads, in hundreds of YouTube videos. An alarming range and variety of explicit self-injury videos has been made available to the viewing public. These are interwoven with text, music and photography, with the aim to glamorize these behaviors. The fact that these videos offer few warnings or clear messages against self-injury increases the risk of causing a triggering effect – urging a young viewer to join the self-injury “community.”
Guaranteed to Attract Attention
Many people with Borderline Personality Disorder feel that pain provides a certain relief from their emotional suffering. It may serve as a distraction from whatever they are experiencing in their lives. Some may hurt themselves as a way of coping with their deep feelings of emptiness, loneliness, boredom, low self-esteem, and identitiy confusion, or as a means of becoming the center of attention.
Sufferers of this disorder often experience dramatic shifts in their identity. An unstable sense of self may produce rapid changes in goals, ambitions, friends, and even sexual orientation. (Western et al, 2011) At times they may experience no sense of themselves at all, leading to feelings of emptiness. (Meares et al, 2011) They may form intense, conflict laden relationships in which their feelings are not shared by their partner. They may enter into another relationship after just a brief encounter, violating the boundaries of their previously existing relationship, (Skodoc et al, 2002) and can become furious when their demands are not met. People with this disorder have recurrent fears of abandonment, and engage in frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined separations from important people in their lives. (Gunderson, 2011) Sometimes they cut themselves or carry out other self-destructive acts to prevent a partner from leaving them.
Threats of Suicide
Suicidal threats are also common among people with this disorder. Studies suggest that about seventy-five percent of people with Borderline Personality Disorder attempt suicide at least once in their lives; with as many as ten percent actually committing suicide. (Gunderson, 2011; Leichsenring et al, 2011) It is common for people with this disorder to enter clinical treatment by way of the hospital emergency room after a suicide attempt.
More than two percent of the general population are estimated to be suffering with Borderline Personality Disorder. (Paris, 2010) But this number may be increasing at an alarming rate. In the most common pattern, suicide risk peaks during young adulthood and gradually declines with advancing age. However, recent studies show accelerating suicide rates.
A Link to Fear of Abandonment
Theorists link fear of abandonment among sufferers to early parenting in an effort to explain this disorder. (Gabbard, 2010) Others propose that an early lack of acceptance by parents may lead to a loss of self-esteem, increased dependence and an inability to cope with separation. (Caligor & Clark, 2010; Sherry & Whilde, 2008) In many cases, parents of individuals with this disorder neglected or rejected them, verbally abused them or otherwise behaved inappropriately. (Huang, Yang & Wu, 2010; Bradley, et al, 2005) While research continues as to the causes of this disorder, theorists suggest it emerges in cultures that change rapidly. As family units come apart, people are left with little sense of belonging. Changes of this kind in today’s society may explain the growing reports of Borderline Personality Disorder. (Milton, 2011)
Practicing mindfulness as well as meditation may help you regain your centering as well as provide an instant calming effect. Focusing your attention only on your breathing, observe your thoughts come and go without acting on them, and remember we are not our thoughts.
This report is not a diagnosis. We hope this information can guide you into improving your life.
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