Borderline Personality Disorder

6 Pages 1463 Words

“Borderline Personality Disorder is a severe, chronic, disabling, and potentially lethal psychiatric condition” (BPD Research Foundation). A person with a Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is characterized by having a repetitive pattern of mood instability and poor self-image. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV) defines Borderline Personality Disorder as:
A pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:
1. frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. Note: Do not include suicidal or self-mutilating behavior covered in Criterion 5.
2. a pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation.
3. identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self.
4. impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating). Note: Do not include suicidal or self-mutilating behavior covered in Criterion 5.
5. recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior
6. affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphoria, irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days).
7. chronic feelings of emptiness
8. inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights)
9. transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms
(BPD Central, Markovitz, Skodol).
BPD is characterized by mood instability and poor self-image. Relationships with others are intense and stormy, very unstable and are difficult in maintaining intimate, cl...