Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms: A Guide to Mental Health

Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms & Diagnosis: Mental Health Insights

Borderline personality disorder symptoms include emotional instability, unstable relationships, disturbed thinking patterns and impulsive behaviour. This chronic mental illness often stems from childhood trauma and neglect. Individuals with BPD experience intense emotions and extreme mood swings. Psychotherapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy and dialectical behaviour therapy can alleviate symptoms. Raising awareness about borderline personality disorder symptoms is key to timely diagnosis and treatment.

Our personalities shape our identity, making each of us unique. However, personality disorders can profoundly affect daily functioning. Globally, around 7.8% of adults are affected by at least one personality disorder.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is one such disorder that disrupts interpersonal relationships, emotion regulation and self-concept. In this article, we will explore the signs and symptoms of BPD, offering insight for readers seeking understanding.

What are the signs and symptoms of borderline personality disorder?

BPD can manifest itself in various ways, affecting one’s personal and social life. Doctors have grouped the symptoms into four categories. Let us discuss borderline personality disorder symptoms below:

• Emotional Instability: Emotional instability is one of the most defining symptoms of BPD. Individuals may feel emotions more intensely and for longer durations than others. Sudden mood shifts, from anger to guilt or from happiness to despair, are common, even in response to minor events.
  Feelings like emptiness, loneliness, shame or rage may dominate. This emotional dysregulation often leads to unpredictable reactions and can interfere with relationships, daily functioning and overall quality of life.
• Impulsive Behaviour: People with BPD often act impulsively as a way to cope with emotional distress. This includes behaviours like overspending, binge eating, reckless driving, substance abuse or risky sexual activity. Around 78% of individuals with BPD have issues with substance misuse.
  These actions are usually unplanned and may bring temporary relief but long-term harm. Some may also engage in self-injury or suicidal gestures. The inability to control these impulses can cause personal, financial or social consequences, making daily life unpredictable and emotionally taxing.
• Disturbed Thinking Patterns: Distorted thinking is common in those with BPD. They may view situations or people in extremes, either all good or all bad, a pattern known as ‘splitting’. This black-and-white mindset can cause sudden shifts in opinions or feelings about others.
  Individuals may also experience paranoia, dissociation or feel disconnected from reality during stress. Individuals with BPD may experience dissociation or transient paranoia under stress, but persistent hallucinations warrant evaluation for other conditions. These patterns generally distort their self-image and often reinforce negative emotions and isolation.
• Unstable Relationships: Relationships for people with BPD can be intense, short-lived and stormy. Their deep fear of abandonment often leads to clingy behaviour, followed by sudden emotional withdrawal. Minor disagreements may trigger breakups or outbursts.
  They may idealise someone one moment and devalue them the next. This instability affects not just romantic ties but also friendships, family connections and professional relationships, making it hard to maintain consistent social bonds over time.
   

What is Borderline Personality Disorder?

Borderline personality disorder, or BPD, is characterised by unstable and erratic behaviours. People with this condition often display an intense fear of abandonment. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) classifies BPD in the Cluster B group of personality disorders.

One of the most characteristic features of BPD is the inability to properly regulate emotions. This leads to reckless behaviours and self-harming tendencies. BPD is a chronic mental health condition affecting approximately 1.4% to 2.7% of the population, depending on diagnostic criteria and region. Understanding borderline personality disorder symptoms may explain one’s behaviours and help in getting treatment.

What Causes Borderline Personality Disorder?

Borderline personality disorder symptoms are generally caused by a combination of different factors. These may be genetic, environmental, or a change in how the brain functions. The exact causes are still under research.

Following are some common causes that are explained in detail:

• Victims of Trauma: Most people diagnosed with BPD are known to have faced physical, sexual or mental abuse as a child. They may have faced a disrupted family life and poor communication by one or both parents. These may contribute towards BPD development. Childhood trauma, including abuse and neglect, is strongly associated with BPD, but prevalence varies across studies. Many individuals with BPD report early adverse experiences.
• Hereditary: Experts believe that BPD may be caused by genetics. If a member of your family has BPD, your chances of getting it increase significantly. Twin studies suggest that genetic factors may account for approximately 40–60% of the risk for developing BPD
• Changes in Brain Functioning: Doctors use MRI to study three parts of the brain, namely, the amygdala (regulates emotions), the hippocampus (regulates self-control and behaviour) and the orbitofrontal cortex (regulates planning and decision-making). People clinically diagnosed with BPD showed unusual activity in these three parts of the brain.
   

How do doctors diagnose BPD?

Diagnosing borderline personality disorder (BPD) can be challenging due to its symptoms overlapping with conditions like bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Since BPD affects personality traits, most diagnoses are made after the age of 18, when personality development is considered complete. However, in certain cases, doctors may make an exception if symptoms are severe and have persisted for over a year.

A licensed psychiatrist or clinical psychologist typically uses the diagnostic criteria provided in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). They conduct comprehensive psychological evaluations, which may include questions about:

• Employment or academic history
• Impulse control patterns
• Physical and mental health background
• Family history of mental illness
   

Additionally, healthcare professionals may interview close family members or carers to gain deeper insight into the individual’s behavioural patterns and emotional responses.

What are the current effective treatment options for BPD?

Doctors primarily use psychotherapy, or talk therapy (counselling), to treat borderline personality disorder symptoms. The aim is to help you relate positively to others and your emotions. It includes the following approaches:

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT): It helps you focus on your emotions and thoughts and how they affect your actions. This therapy is goal-orientated and structured in a way to help you unlearn negative behaviours and adopt a healthy way to express yourself.
• Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT): The goal of DBT is to help you control your emotions and improve your unstable relationships. It also helps you to accept your reality and modify any impulsive behaviours. Moreover, through DBT, people with BPD can reduce their self-destructive actions.
• Group Therapy: In this, you meet in a group with people going through similar conditions and discuss with your therapist to find a solution. It can help you build effective communication skills without being triggered.
   

There are no specific medicines that can treat borderline personality disorder. However, your doctor may prescribe medicines to manage conditions associated with BPD. These could include anxiety, depression and mood swings.

Final Words

Living with borderline personality disorder symptoms can be exhausting. However, you are not alone in this journey. If you feel overwhelmed with your emotions and symptoms, dial 14416 for help.

Moreover, people with BPD have a higher suicidal tendency. Statistics show that 69-80% of people may exhibit suicidal behaviour. Therefore, it is important to know the symptoms and identify them early on. With prolonged treatment, the symptoms can improve, and people suffering from it can experience a better quality of life.