Borderline Personality Disorder is one of ten personality disorders recognised by the DSM IV.
If you have BPD you may have had a series of unstable and intense relationships, or felt the need to cling too long to damaging relationships. This may be because you feel insecure, alone or lack self-worth.
You may have a poor self image, feel that you don’t fit or belong, and find that your moods and feelings change rapidly. Therefore you may find social relationships difficult.
>>A doctor may diagnose you with bpd if you have five or more of these symptoms.The symptoms have usually been present for a long time and these symptoms have an overall negative affect on the sufferer’s life.
1. frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. Note: Do not include suicidal or self-mutilating behavior covered in Criterion 5.
2. a pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation.
3. identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self.
4. impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating). Note: Do not include suicidal or self-mutilating behavior covered in Criterion 5.
5. recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior
6. 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).
7. chronic feelings of emptiness
8. inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights)
9. transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms