Borderline Personality Disorder: More Than
Mood Swings and Impulsiveness
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When you see someone snap in anger or have mood swings all day, it’s easy to chalk it up to them dealing with a lot of stress. However, if it starts happening all the time, it could be a sign of something more serious, like borderline personality disorder (BPD).
Due to the aggression and turbulent behavior shown by many people who suffer from BPD, it has become one of the most misunderstood mental illnesses today. However, it’s more than just mere violence and anger issues, and is often rooted in fear, anxiety, and a negative self-image. Let’s take a deep dive into BPD to learn more about this misjudged condition, its symptoms and causes, and why raising awareness about it is of the utmost importance in every community.
What is Borderline Personality Disorder?
Borderline personality disorder is a mental health condition characterized by impulsiveness, intense emotions (typically anger), and tumultuous relationships with others. People who struggle with this condition usually have trouble regulating their human emotions, so they act on impulse, sometimes physically harming themselves and others in the process.
What Causes BPD?
People with BPD aren’t just violent by nature. Most of the time, it happens among those with a strong fear of abandonment, leading to paranoia and anxiety that manifests in anger and mood swings.
Like many mental health conditions, experts believe that BPD can be hereditary. If someone in your family has a history of the condition, you could be predisposed to it, too. However, it also makes more sense to believe that stems from some kind of emotional trauma. This can include neglect and emotional abuse as a child, or perhaps a traumatic previous relationship that never felt stable, whether because of infidelity, abuse, or abandonment.
Signs and Symptoms of BPD
There are many signs that point to BPD, most of them turbulent and kind of alarming. Here are just some of the most common symptoms:
- Mood swings that last for days
- Losing temper too quickly, even over small things
- A cycle of having intense, tumultuous relationships
- A fear of abandonment, leading to paranoia in a relationship due to the anxiety of potentially being separated
- A negative self-image and seeing yourself as a bad person
- Impulsive behavior, such as driving recklessly, binge eating, having sex without protection, and substance abuse
- Getting into physical fights with people close to them, leading to them sabotaging their relationships
If you suspect you or someone you know might have BPD, consult with a psychiatrist to get a proper diagnosis.
Treatment Options for BPD
Thankfully, there are many treatment options available for those struggling with BPD. Talk therapy is a terrific route to take for this kind of mental health condition, especially for learning how to manage big emotions. Dialectical Behavior Therapy, in particular, is a type of talk therapy well-suited for BPD patients. It focuses on teaching people emotional regulation, mindfulness, and how to be more tolerant of stress.
For more extreme cases, your doctor might prescribe medication to help. These include antidepressants, mood stabilizers, or even anti-anxiety medications to help manage intense BPD symptoms and make you feel more stable and calm.
Why It’s Important to Raise Awareness About BPD
Due to the social stigma surrounding BPD, many don’t seek help even if they see the symptoms in themselves. Raising awareness about BPD can help people who suffer from it feel more understood. Education about its causes and symptoms also opens more avenues to get them properly diagnosed and treated quickly.
It’s even more important to raise awareness about BPD in communities that face barriers to receiving formal mental health diagnoses. For example, borderline personality disorder statistics in Atlanta, GA reveal that over 88,000 people in the city could develop BPD in their lifetime. However, because half of the city’s population is Black individuals, many of those who show symptoms of BPD might not ever get a proper diagnosis, since mental health care is heavily stigmatized in the Black community.
Endnote
It’s not easy to be empathetic and understanding of those with Borderline Personality Disorder, especially with how violent and angry people who struggle with it seem to be. However, it’s not just mood swings and impulsiveness. It’s a real mental illness that is rooted in loneliness and a terrible sense of self.
As mental health advocates, it’s our job to learn the nuances of BPD and help raise awareness about it, too. The more we talk about it, the more people can get the right support and access to healthcare to treat it, and that means saving more relationships and creating a safer community.
