How to prevent BPD from ruining your life

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Perhaps the disease is to blame for the tantrums and unsuccessful relationships. And it can be cured.

What is Borderline Personality Disorder

This is a serious Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) / Cleveland Clinic mental illness. People with BPD find it difficult to control their emotions and behavior, build stable relationships, and often have problems with self-esteem. They can also put themselves in danger or harm themselves. For example, leave burns on the skin, have sex with random partners, get involved in fights, violate traffic rules. Sometimes it comes to suicide attempts.

The condition is also dangerous because other Borderline personality disorder / Mayo Clinic mental illnesses may appear along with it. For example, depression, bipolar disorder, eating disorders.

Borderline Personality Disorder / Psychology Today affects approximately 2% of young people. Most often it is found in women. Men are sometimes mistakenly referred to by the Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) / Cleveland Clinic as depression or PTSD.

What Causes Borderline Personality Disorder

Where Borderline Personality Disorder comes from, no one knows for sure. Scientists only assume Borderline Personality Disorder / U. S. National Institute of Mental Health Information Resource Center, which may be three reasons.

Heredity

Those who have relatives with BPD are more at risk of getting sick. This is suggested by F. L. Coolidge, L. L. Thede, K. L. Jang. Heritability of Personality Disorders in Childhood: A Preliminary Investigation / Journal of Personality Disorders are scientists who interviewed 112 pairs of twins.

Brain malfunction

Studies show that people with borderline disorder sometimes experience structural and functional changes in the brain. This is especially true of the areas that control impulses and emotions. There are failures before the illness or because of it, it is not yet clear.

Environment

Some patients report that they experienced stress in childhood. For example, physical or sexual abuse, separation from parents. Others have had toxic relationships or serious conflicts.

How to recognize borderline personality disorder

People with BPD are emotionally unstable. Because of this, their behavior changes. Symptoms of Borderline personality disorder that may be suspected are:

• Sudden mood swings. Feelings of happiness, irritability, or anxiety can last from a few hours to a few days.
• Constant feeling of emptiness.
• Strong or inappropriate anger. The person can be sarcastic, vicious, and even get involved in fights.
• Rapid changes in self-esteem and self-identification, goals and values. Just now, everything was fine, but after a minute the person with the disorder considers himself bad or behaves as if others do not exist.
• Unstable Borderline Personality Disorder / U. S. National Institute of Mental Health Information Resource Center relationships with loved ones. A person then idealizes people, then suddenly decides that they do not care about him, or accuses them of something, for example, cruelty.
• Fear of being abandoned. In an effort to avoid real or imagined rejection, a person may quickly start an intimate relationship (physical or emotional) or stop abruptly.
• Impulsive and often dangerous behavior: shoplifting, unprotected sex, traffic violations, overeating, drug use. But if all this manifests itself when a person is in good spirits, the symptom indicates Borderline Personality Disorder / U. S. National Institute of Mental Health Information Resource Center rather a mood disorder.
• Feelings of dissociation. In this state, it seems to a person that he is as if torn from the body and looks at himself from the side. And everything that happens looks unrealistic.
• Self-injurious behavior. A person can cut their skin and leave burns on it with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) / Cleveland Clinic. Sometimes the desire to harm yourself comes to suicide attempts.
• Attacks of paranoia. The person with the disorder often worries that others don't really like him or her and don't want to spend time together. Even if it isn't.

Not all people with borderline personality disorder face the Borderline Personality Disorder / U. S. National Institute of Mental Health Information Resource Center with a complete list of symptoms. Trifles can cause them. For example, a business trip of a loved one. The severity of the manifestations and their duration depend on the person.

What to do if you have suicidal thoughts

If you are thinking about hurting yourself or taking your own life, get help. It can be obtained in several ways:

• Call the hotline of the Emergency Psychological Aid Center of the Russian Emergencies Ministry: +7 (495) 989-50-50.
• Contact a psychologist at the Ministry of Emergencies.
• If you live in Moscow, dial 051 from a landline phone or +7 (495) 051 from a mobile phone.
• Leave a request for the Moscow service of psychological assistance to the population. A specialist will advise you, even if you do not live in the capital.
• Call your psychologist.
• Talk to a loved one. This can be a friend, relative, or loved one.

How is Borderline Personality Disorder Treated?

Differently. First of all, you need to see a therapist. He will collect the Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD): Diagnosis and Tests / Cleveland Clinic for a complete medical history and may order a blood test or X-ray to rule out the physical causes of the symptoms.

If everything is in order with the body, the doctor can send the patient to a psychotherapist or psychiatrist. He will talk to the Borderline Personality Disorder / U. S. National Institute of Mental Health Information Resource Center with a person, find out if the family had mental illness. Borderline disorder can be difficult to recognize due to additional illnesses. For example, depression or anxiety disorder.

Once the diagnosis is made, the doctor will prescribe an appropriate therapy.

Psychotherapy

Several types of Borderline personality disorder / Mayo Clinic have been developed for people with borderline personality disorder:

• Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. Teaches you to control the Borderline Personality Disorder / U. S. National Institute of Mental Health Information Resource Center strong emotions and not harm yourself. After treatment, patients often improve their relationships with those around them.
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Helps Borderline Personality Disorder / U. S. National Institute of Mental Health Information Resource Center people with the disorder find and change beliefs that damage self-esteem and relationships. After classes, patients almost do not feel anxiety and harm themselves less.
• Schematic therapy. It is carried out individually or in a group. Helps to remember unmet needs, due to which the patient is used to inappropriate behaviors. For example, as a child, a child screamed to draw the parents' attention to himself. Once it could have helped, but now it only hurts. In the classroom, a person can learn to behave correctly and achieve goals in adequate ways.
• Mentalization-based therapy. Helps patients to identify their feelings and emotions and relate to them more calmly. The emphasis is on what a person should think first and then do.
• Systemic training for emotional predictability and problem solving (STEPPS). The treatment is designed for 20 weeks and takes place in a group that includes the patient and his family. Used as an adjunct to other types of psychotherapy.
• Transference-focused psychotherapy (psychodynamic therapy). During the session, the patient tells the specialist about situations when he was behaving aggressively. Together with the doctor, the patient looks for other models of behavior, and then tries to apply them in life.
• General psychiatric management. Treatment takes place during work or study. The patient himself tries to catch and comprehend emotionally difficult moments. A person can also take medications, work with a psychotherapist individually or with the family.

Medicines

Medication is not the main treatment for borderline personality disorder. They are prescribed by the Borderline personality disorder / Mayo Clinic to relieve symptoms of depression, aggression, or anxiety. These can be antidepressants, antipsychotics, or mood stabilizers.

Some medications cause side effects. The doctor will tell you what to expect from a particular drug.

Hospitalization

Occasionally, patients with borderline personality disorder require treatment at the Borderline personality disorder / Mayo Clinic. It helps people not to harm themselves and get rid of suicidal thoughts.

How successful the treatment can be

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD): Outlook / Prognosis / Cleveland Clinic. Recovery is possible, but not always. In any case, it is a slow and difficult process. Some patients begin to lead normal lives through therapy and learn to communicate properly.

For unknown reasons, the disease has a tendency to burn out. Therefore, sometimes people with the disorder notice that their condition has improved by the age of 35-40.

Living with BPD

If you have borderline personality disorder and are already in therapy, go beyond that. Here are some Borderline personality disorder / Mayo Clinic tips to help you manage your condition without hurting yourself or others:

• Learn to recognize what triggers outbursts of anger or impulsive behavior.
• Try to get rid of other BPD problems. For example, from alcoholism or drug addiction.
• Ask loved ones to join therapy. They may be able to understand and support you.
• Find people with BPD. They can talk about their experiences and give advice.
• Make a crisis plan with your doctor. This way you will know exactly what to do if you want to hurt yourself.
• Try meditation or breathing practices. It helps control emotions.
• Try not to think about what other people think of you. It does not matter.
• Try to express your emotions in a way that doesn't hurt others. You may sometimes have to remain silent.
• Consider a healthy lifestyle. Try to quit fast food and start exercising in the morning.
• Don't beat yourself up for the illness. But understand, treatment is only your responsibility.