![]() To confuse things further, people with BPD also usually suffer from additional mental illnesses. In someone with borderline personality disorder, the highs and lows can change over dinner.” “ highs or lows might last for weeks or months. “In someone with borderline personality disorder, the highs and lows can change over dinner.” “ highs or lows might last for weeks or months,” Hoffman stated. With people with, you can track the mood instability to occurring around some incident that occurred in the relationship.”Īdditionally, the mood swings in people with bipolar and people with BPD typically differ in duration. “The difference,” Hoffman said, “is that in bipolar disorder, the mood instability is caused by a pattern of sleep disturbance and then a high level of energy. Unfortunately, BPD is frequently overlooked or misdiagnosed - all too often as bipolar disorder due to the fact that both conditions involve mood instability. If you put someone with BPD on an island, you wouldn’t necessarily see the symptoms - whatever happens, happens in the context of with someone else.” An oft misdiagnosed disorder Unlike other psychiatric diagnoses, if you put someone with schizophrenia on an island all by themselves, their mental illness would still be evident. Hoffman, president and co-founder of the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder, explained one of the defining aspects of the disorder in an exclusive interview with HellaWella: “It occurs in the context of relationships. This could explain some of the emotional outbursts that seem disproportionate to the provocation.ĭr. For example, Kreisman and Straus wrote that people with BPD appear to have been born with a hyperreactive fear system, or their fear system became hyperreactive in response to early fear-provoking trauma, or both. Their unstable emotions, like all BPD symptoms, are a result of a psychiatric illness that stems from neurological imbalances and environmental factors. ![]() About 8% to 10% of BPD patients commit suicide. Or they may engage in some other type of impulsive, self-destructive behavior, like spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving or binge eating. This discomfort can lead borderlines to self-mutilate, which sometimes provides them with a sense of release. Jerold Kreisman and Hal Straus wrote in “Sometimes I Act Crazy: Living with Borderline Personality Disorder” - “some borderlines feel that they will literally explode if they cannot in some way discharge this agitation.” What they’re feeling can be so intense that - as Dr. ![]() Their emotions undergo rapid changes that they have difficulty controlling, and an innocuous comment can sometimes spark an angry outburst. “Walking on eggshells” is a common phrase people use to describe what it’s like being around a loved one with BPD. People with BPD often harbor an intense fear of being abandoned by the ones they love, suffer from chronic feelings of emptiness, engage in suicidal behavior or threats, and have difficulty controlling anger. ![]() Ignorant statements like the one made in the press release are part of the reason why society hears “borderline personality disorder” and thinks “violent.” (For the record, people with BPD are no more violent than the general population.) What is borderline personality disorder?Īn estimated 2% of the population has BPD, a type of personality disorder that is characterized by intense and unstable interpersonal relationships, poorly regulated emotions, self-destructive impulsivity and unstable self-image. Ryan Lanza, his brother, told ABC News that Adam was autistic, or had Asperger syndrome and “a personality disorder.” There are 10 personality disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, ranging from obsessive-compulsive disorder to narcissistic personality disorder. I t’s so misunderstood and stigmatized, in fact, that the press release I received on the subject - which prompted me to write this story - stated, “A topical subject, BPD is featured in the … Sandy Hook school shooting.” The clearly confused PR agency was suggesting that the alleged Sandy Hook shooter, Adam Lanza, suffered from BPD, when, in actuality, there’s never been any reports of him having the condition. The truth behind (arguably) the most misunderstood mental illness of our time.ĭespite being more common than schizophrenia and bipolar disorder combined, borderline personality disorder remains one of the least understood and most stigmatized mental illnesses.
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