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Support for People Affected by BPD

Understanding BPD Symptoms

The DSM-IV provides nine criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder diagnosis. A person must present with at least five of these criteria to be diagnosed with BPD.

"People with BPD are like people with third degree burns over 90% of their bodies. Lacking emotional skin, they feel agony at the slightest touch or movement."
— Marsha Linehan

Emotional Traits

1. Mood Shifts

Rapid changes in mood lasting only a few hours

2. Anger Management

Inappropriate, intense or uncontrollable anger

Behavioral Traits

3. Self-Destructive Acts

Including self-mutilation or suicidal gestures

4. Impulsive Behaviors

Such as spending, substance abuse, reckless driving

Identity Traits

5. Identity Disturbance

Uncertainty in self-image, goals, values

"I have a hard time figuring out my personality. I tend to be whomever I'm with."

6. Chronic Emptiness

Persistent feelings of emptiness or boredom

Relationship Traits

7. Unstable Relationships

Characterized by splitting and intense patterns

8. Fear of Abandonment

Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment

9. Paranoid Thoughts

Stress-related paranoid ideation or dissociation

Additional Characteristics

  • • Often bright, witty, and engaging personalities
  • • May struggle with object constancy in relationships
  • • Difficulty tolerating being alone
  • • Lives may show pattern of disrupted education, careers, relationships
  • • Many have history of childhood trauma or neglect
  • • May show high interpersonal sensitivity and empathy

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If you recognize these symptoms, professional help is available.

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