The Defining Characteristics of BPD
Problems with self-image and concept- People with BPD have a highly shifting sense of self that is largely based on what those around them say to them and how they are treated. They are extremely sensitive to the way that people react to them and how they will be accepted. For example, their self-image is so unstable, that if someone paid them a compliment they would think that they would see themselves as perfect. If someone offers any degree of criticism, a person with BPD will think that they are a complete failure. Through these quick changes in the way they see themselves, people with BPD tend to have very incongruous and rapidly shifting feelings about themselves.
This lack of a coherent sense of self leads to their problems in relationships. People with BPD have an intense need for dependable relationships and are very susceptible to forming passionate, clinging relationships. While they depend on others and are very sensitive to how they are perceived, this often leads to extreme relationships. A person with BPD will alternate between seeing someone as perfect and seeing him as less than adequate a person. This results in volatile behavior and makes the person with BPD appear very manipulative to those who he or she is close with. While a person with BPD is undergoing a very stressful time, often he does not want to be near those he is close to and pushes them away, thus resulting in fights, break-ups, and the discontinuation of relationships. People with BPD often lack real emotional responsiveness, which also leads to the termination of friendships and relationships. While people with BPD can appear to be very capable of sufficient social functioning, often these relationships tend to be very short-lived and unstable. For example, people with BPD often become attached and close friends with someone very quickly, yet if things aren’t going perfectly, the friendship will quickly dissolve.
People with BPD have very abrupt changes in emotion, feeling and in mood. Anger is often expressed directly to a range of targets. Emptiness and loneliness are other common affects that people with BPD experience. Sufferers of BPD have a very difficult time regulating these emotions and often they are oblivious to the emotions of others and are unable to read the facial language of people around them.
When highly stressed, sufferers of BPD may have psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, feelings of disconnectign with their own bodies, paranoia, and feelings that they have lost contact with the world, such as feeling as if they are in the "twilight zone". People with BPD are often subject to panic attacks when they are under a lot of stress as well. Psychotic symptoms are generally uncommon in BPD. A psychosis is usually the exception to the disease, and when it does occur, it is stress-related, reversible, transient, and often it is a response to rage.
A lack of initiative is a huge problem that plagues those with BPD. While they often have a large potential for success, they are hindered by their emotional unsteadiness and cognitive disturbances. People with BPD have a very hard time finishing school and going to work, which sadly leads to lack of achievement in other areas of their lives.
About 3% to 9% of people with BPD complete suicide. Other forms
of self-destruction that is common with those who have BPD include overdosing
on hurtful substances, cutting of the wrists or other body parts. Both anorexia
nervosa and bulimia are very common to those with BPD. This damaging behavior
is also associated with their impulsive nature.