Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is described as a persistent disturbance in the personal behavior characterized by complexity and inconsistency in the emotional status of a person. This may cause a distressful situation in personal and professional relationships. A person with borderline personality disorder may often be intelligent and lively and appears to be warm and friendly. These individuals may maintain this appearance for years together, until a stressful condition, a grave distress like the death of a closed one or breakup of a romantic relationship crumbles their emotions.
If not diagnosed and treated early, the individuals with borderline personality disorder may severely demoralize relationships with friends, family members, and co-workers and may even harm themselves. In advanced stages, these individuals may also attempt suicide. This makes it increasingly important to identify warning signs of borderline personality disorder so that it can be treated appropriately. Following are the warning signs of individuals with borderline personality disorder.
Warning signs of borderline personality disorder
An individual with borderline personality disorder will manifest the below mentioned emotional states.
1. Disparaging or self-destructive feelings
The person may abruptly show an unpredictable and imprudent behavior that comprises of drug or alcohol abuse, shoplifting, gambling, overeating, or other self-destructive activities, which could lead to an extreme impulsive behavior like suicidal attempts. It is sometimes hard to believe that a person that seemed to be so positive and constructive can suddenly act so abruptly and destructively.
2. Unstable emotions
A highly unpredictable emotional imbalance is very common with borderline personality disorder individuals. A stress, perhaps unnoticeable or negligible to a normal individual, can trigger an emotional tide in such individuals. The sufferer experiences extreme emotions of joy, anger, anxiety, euphoria, depression, and panic attacks. These surges of emotions last for few hours and only rarely few days.
3. Fragmented emotions or lack of identity
An extreme shift of self-image from positive to negative characterizes a person with borderline personality disorder. There could be a sudden abrupt variation in the opinions and plans about values, type of friends, goals, strengths, weaknesses, and career. Most of the times the self-image of such individuals is based on bad or evil, but at times these individuals have a feeling that they do not even exist at all. Such kind of experiences generally exist because of the lack of support, nurturing and meaningful relationships. Many mental health professionals believe that the individual suffering from borderline personality disorder manipulate the situations deliberately but findings from research has shown that these behaviors are due to inner pain or confusion and defensive reactions. These individuals have limitations in coping with the situation and lack proper communication skills.
4. Feeling of persecution
Considering as if they are the victim in every situation is typical for a person suffering from borderline personality disorder. Such persons are consciously aware about the things that are going around them. Individuals with borderline personality disorder are very sensitive to the way others treat them and often react intensely to even an apparent disapproval. The opinion of such individual abruptly shifts from positive to negative if they perceive a threat of losing someone. They experience intense fear, anger or a feeling of separation even if faced with realistic unavoidable plans. For instance, losing temper if the lunch date is cancelled or if the person is late than the scheduled time. They believe that this rejection implies that they are bad. In order to avoid rejection, a person with borderline personality disorder acts hysterically and the impulsive actions may include suicidal actions (rarely lethal).
Idealizing relationships on the very first or second meeting and demanding to spend more time together with more emphasis to share most internal details early in the relationship can also indicate the person suffering from a borderline personality syndrome. These individuals show a sudden shift from venerating other people to criticizing them, showing the emotion that the other person is not caring. This person can abruptly shift from a highly intimate to a hyper-alert individual if had a remote sense of insecurity in the ongoing relationship.
