| BPD is a common disorder with frequency in women two to three
times greater than men. Disproportionately higher rates of BDP are found in Hispanic patients.
Hispanic patients have higher rates of BPD criteria reflecting intense anger, affective
instability, and unstable relationships than Caucasians. |
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| A mnemonic for Borderline Personality Disorder is “PRAISE”: |
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P |
Paranoid ideas |
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R |
Relationship instability |
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A |
Abandonment fears, angry outbursts, affective instability |
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I |
Impulsive behavior, identity disturbance |
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S |
Suicidal behavior |
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E |
Emptiness, feeling alone and in emotional pain |
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| People with borderline personality disorder have relationship problems
with family and others. They can snap in to intense anger and lash out at people around them
when things don't go their way. They can become very emotional and irrational when they
believe someone close might abandon them. If they even suspect that they may get abandoned
they engage in destructive behavior and may try to destroy and abandon the relationship first. |
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| When borderlines fall in love they idolize their partners and put
them on a pedestal feeling that "this is the love of their lifetime". In time this
idealization turns in to devaluation of the partner when the partner fails to live up to the
borderline’s unrealistic expectations. When this happens, the borderlines can become angry,
resentful, abusive, and vindictive. They often expect more from people than people are able
to give, and rely on their extreme emotions to overrule facts. |
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| They may feel worthless, caged, isolated, and empty. They fear
abandonment because they often only feel complete when someone is near. They hurt or threaten to
hurt themselves to get attention and/or threaten the person who may try to leave them. They often
cut themselves, bruise themselves, or cut their wrists to express their emotional pain. They often
abuse prescription medications. |
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| Their fear of abandonment is so great that it often elicits a very
defensive reaction – even infidelity. Borderlines often defeat the very relationships they so fear
losing. For such reasons, their relationships fail to mature to a stage where intimate bonds
and trust are formed. |
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| When their partner tries to leave the relationship the Borderlines
may try to prevent them from leaving in a variety of ways -- anything from declarations of love and
promises to change to outright implicit or explicit threats such as "you'll never see the
children again" and "no one but me will ever love you." |
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| They see things in black and white and see individuals as only being
good or only being bad. They can love a person one day, and on a slightest perceived wrong
turn on them and hate them. The movie "Fatal Attraction" illustrated how a person
with Borderline Personality Disorder may perceive and react to events and relationships. |
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| Seeing things in black and white is mostly done on feelings.
They can reverse several times from black to white and visa versa based on feelings. Because
of this, they are often unable to reach a compromise in negotiations; and when a compromise is
thrust on them they may feel violated, cheated, and abused. |
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| Borderlines often project their inadequacies on others. They
don’t take responsibility for their actions. Their feelings of shame necessitate their projection
onto others in order to cope. It is common for them to accuse their partners of wrong doing
when in fact they are the ones who are responsible. Borderlines are often misunderstood and
appear to be "giving", for example, when actually their motivations are about
"receiving". |
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| When Borderlines disassociate from reality, they may remember reality
differently than you do. BPD patients typically don't see a problem with themselves. |
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| Many therapists have referred to BPD’s as "little tornados that
continuously plod through their lives every decade, touching down here and there, disrupting many
relationships and tearing apart others’ lives." |
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| The cause of borderline personality disorder is believed to be sexual
abuse in childhood and/or parental abandonment in childhood. People with BPD can feel torment
on a daily basis with painful memories of their childhood abuse and traumas. They have problems
controlling their emotions and impulsivity. Their emotions can overtake their cognitive functions.
People with borderline personality disorder can be very intense and difficult to be around.
The true cause of that intensity can be misinterpreted by people around them and by law enforcement. |
| http://www.peaceandhealing.com/personality/borderline.asp |
| http://www.way2hope.org/mental-health/borderline-personality-disorder.htm |
| http://www.bpdworld.org/ |
| http://www.borderlinepersonalitysupport.com/ |
| http://www.nyspi.org/AR2002-03/divs/PersonalitySt-c.html |
