Borderline personality disorder: how to recognize and treat it

Borderline personality disorder is a problem that is being talked about more and more often but still known to few. Let's find out everything there is to know about it.

The term borderline is used in psychology to indicate a psychiatric problem halfway between psychosis and neurosis. When we speak of borderline personality disorder , however, we mostly indicate a form of instability of the self-image which is combined with sudden changes in mood and difficulty in managing relationships with others.
Recognizing it is very important in order to be able to implement the right and suitable therapies to bring about improvements in the quality of life.

Symptoms of borderline personality disorder

Suffering from borderline personality disorder means being afraid of being alone, always needing the help of others and doing everything to avoid ending up in relationships of any kind. Those who suffer from it tend to always idealize others and to have self-harming attitudes that can go as far as attempting suicide.

A problem that according to recent data concerns 20% of psychiatric patients and about 3.5% of the general population. Furthermore, it is a disorder that affects more frequently people of the female sex and that tends to develop around the age of adolescence or in the early years of adulthood.
Although it is a varied disorder, the main symptoms are:

– The fear of abandonment
– The fear of loneliness
– Unstable relationships
– Absolute vision of things
– Impulsiveness
– Constant sense of emptiness
– Emotional instability
– The tendency to idealize others
– Paranoid thoughts
– Self-harming behaviors

These symptoms, of course, can lead to the development of other lesser known but often present symptoms such as substance abuse, mood swings and an absolute view of things.

Emotions are experienced in an extreme and uncontrolled way and this can lead to outbursts of anger which the subject always regrets, leading to a devaluation of himself. All for a quality of life that is ruined in every area and which risks, consequently, to expand the problems already described.

What are the causes of personality disorder

As often happens when we talk about disturbances of this type, tracing the causes with certainty is not very simple. In fact, there may be both genetic bases and those linked to problems of various types. Among the most common and which fall within the environmental factors are childhood abuse, psychological and physical abuse and traumatic experiences of abandonment and, therefore, capable of exacerbating at least one of the main symptoms of the disease.

As far as the brain is concerned, however, some studies have shown that there may be problems in regulating emotions at the base. Added to this is also a difficulty in planning things and often cognitive deficits or social cognition.

It is also useful to know that borderline personality disorder has symptoms similar to bipolar disorder, depressive problems , post traumatic stress disorder, etc… For this reason, before obtaining a diagnosis, it is necessary to contact a doctor expert in these problems and obtain a diagnosis which will be followed by the most suitable treatments to cure the problem.

Possible treatments and therapies

As with all problems related to personality disorders, it is important to act on several fronts. The first is certainly that of psychotherapy which can help reduce moments of depression, reducing suicidal behavior and helping those who suffer to slowly restore a correct self-image. This can be combined with a sort of behavioral training which aims to help understand which mental strategies to implement in certain situations.

Drugs such as serotonin reuptake inhibitors, mood stabilizers, antipsychotics and benzodiazepines can be added to psychotherapy.
These drugs are chosen by the psychiatrist and managed over time according to the effects they give. Therefore it is very important to take them always and only within a good medical therapy.

By acting in the right way, it is possible to improve the symptoms and regain a life as normal as possible, in which to manage emotions correctly and in which to finally feel more self-confident and, above all, able to manage moments of loneliness and unexpected or unpredictable situations .