Symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder.
A person suffering from BPD can have a history of stormy relationships characterized by instability. This pattern of instability in relationships tends to persist for years and could be related to a person's low self-image and early social interactions. (Grohol, 2003, p. 1) Other patterns common to people with BPD include impulsivity, which can begin in early adulthood. The DSM-IV criteria established in the American Psychiatric Association define Borderline Personality Disorder with a person displaying five or more of the following:.
Borderline Personality Disorder.
The symptoms include frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment.
A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation.
Also included are identity disturbances markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self.
Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., sending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating).
Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior.
Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphoria, irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days.
Chronic feelings of emptiness.
Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights.
And transient, stress- related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms.
American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Washington, DC, 1994. (Holmes, 2003, p. 1-2).
Splitting.
Borderlines tend to see the world in black and white. They view people and situations as all good or all bad with no room for the gray areas. It is much like the way a child would view things.
