Borderline Personality Disorder

Simonsays

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Rather than hijack other threads discussing this condition, i set up this thread, as myself @Janelle525 and @Jennifer were interested too.

I think it is a significantly unrecognised condition and affects both females and males. It can be very debilitating and hard to diagnose even in those who suffer it and those raised by a BPD parent can go on to suffer it as well and develop multiple health conditions including hypothyroidism.

This is a rough definition below, but is far from exclusive. B.P.D also overlaps with other personality disorders and traits, such as histrionic, avoidant, dependent, schizoid and narcissism etc.

Borderline personality disorder symptoms vary from person to person and women are more likely to have this disorder than men?? (my question marks). Common symptoms of the disorder include the following:

  • Having an unstable or dysfunctional self-image or a distorted sense of self (how one feels about one’s self)
  • Feelings of isolation, boredom and emptiness
  • Difficulty feeling empathy for others
  • A history of unstable relationships that can change drastically from intense love and idealization to intense hate
  • A persistent fear of abandonment and rejection, including extreme emotional reactions to real and even perceived abandonment
  • Intense, highly changeable moods that can last for several days or for just a few hours
  • Strong feelings of anxiety, worry and depression
  • Impulsive, risky, self-destructive and dangerous behaviors, including reckless driving, drug or alcohol abuse and having unsafe sex
  • Hostility
  • Unstable career plans, goals and aspirations
Many people experience one or more of the above symptoms regularly, but a person with borderline personality disorder will experience many of the symptoms listed above consistently throughout adulthood.

The term “borderline” refers to that fact that people with this condition tend to “border” on being diagnosed with additional mental health conditions in their lifetime, including psychosis.

One of the ironies of this disorder is that people with BPD may crave closeness, but their intense and unstable emotional responses tend to alienate others, causing long-term feelings of isolation.
 

InChristAlone

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Yep, I have fit the criteria here. Sadly. My latest stress was extreme emotion surrounding fear of a close friend abandoning me for me telling a lie. I was on edge for 2 weeks. She did end up 'unfriending' me and I went nuts. Cried intensely for an hour had rage etc. I have a history of codependency. And I think the root cause is again the lack of guidance and love in my teenage years.

I am a much much less crazy person now though having gone through the panic disorder which I believe has led me to find myself.
 

InChristAlone

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Most peatarians are
I would say it is more ocd than BPD. Though I have met a lot of peat fans with PTSD. I think stress disorders make you seek out things which claim to help with it. It has not been my experience that a high sugar and dairy diet cures anxiety disorders in fact it might enhance this side. At least that's been my experience. Then a lot of people go through a few years trying to 'calm' back down again. But I think the world is full of mental disorders regardless of diet.
 
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lexis

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I guess most of these disorders are examples of running on reptile brain mode. Engaging the prefrontal lobes is what makes us real humans

This guy explains it neatly

 
OP
S

Simonsays

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"Neuroscience research examines brain mechanisms possibly underlying the impulsivity, mood instability, aggression, anger, and negative emotion seen in BPD. Studies suggest that people predisposed to impulsive aggression have impaired regulation of the neural circuits that modulate emotion.(ref10) The amygdala, a small almond-shaped structure deep inside the brain, is an important component of the circuit that regulates negative emotion. In response to signals from other brain centers indicating a perceived threat, it marshals fear and arousal. This might be more pronounced under the influence of stress and/or drugs like alcohol. Areas in the front of the brain (pre-frontal area) act to dampen the activity of this circuit. Recent brain imaging studies show that individual differences in the ability to activate regions of the prefrontal cerebral cortex thought to be involved in inhibitory activity predict the ability to suppress negative emotion.(ref11)

Serotonin, norepinephrine and acetylcholine are among the chemical messengers in these circuits that play a role in the regulation of emotions, including sadness, anger, anxiety and irritability. Likewise, mood-stabilizing drugs that are known to enhance the activity of GABA, the brain’s major inhibitory neurotransmitter, may help people who experience BPD-like mood swings."

Amygdala hyperreactivity in borderline personality disorder: implications for emotional dysregulation. - PubMed - NCBI
 
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"when inflammatory stress hormones flood a child’s body and brain, they alter the genes that oversee our stress reactivity, re-setting the stress response to “high” for life."

Child abuse, depression, and methylation in genes involved with stress, neural plasticity, and brain circuitry. - PubMed - NCBI


Gosh you have such good posts Greg, always so insightful and informative.

This is certainly true for me (technically diagnosed with OCD at 21 years of age). I experienced what I consider a very stressful birth situation and super scary childhood, it definitely set me on a brain pattern of overreactive emotions while constantly switched on high alert. It's taken me years (decades) to learn how to calm down.

From your link above: "Although epigenetic changes are frequently long lasting, they are not necessarily permanent. Consequently, interventions to reverse the negative biological and behavioral sequelae associated with child maltreatment are briefly discussed."

In my experience, the stress can be mitigated and UNDONE, but I have to attend to my personal factors DAILY in order to stay on an even keel (calm, peaceful, happy). It takes mindfulness for sure.

A problem I see is that lots of people are suffering, but they're clueless: either completely unaware that there's a problem or busy blaming others. If they actually make the HUGE step in acknowledging the issue, the next enormous hurdle is discovering truly healing therapies rather than masking symptoms.
 

Greg says

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Gosh you have such good posts Greg, always so insightful and informative.

I experienced what I consider a very stressful birth situation and super scary childhood, it definitely set me on a brain pattern of overreactive emotions while constantly switched on high alert. It's taken me years (decades) to learn how to calm down.

In my experience, the stress can be mitigated and UNDONE, but I have to attend to my personal factors DAILY in order to stay on an even keel (calm, peaceful, happy). It takes mindfulness for sure.

A problem I see is that lots of people are suffering, but they're clueless: either completely unaware that there's a problem or busy blaming others. If they actually make the HUGE step in acknowledging the issue, the next enormous hurdle is discovering truly healing therapies rather than masking symptoms.

I had a traumatic emergency birth, my mums appendix burst. I also have to attend to my personal factors daily... this also took decades. For me it's like self caring for a wild animal.

Yes, this is true, people are suffering and are clueless and looking for help in the wrong places. But, I think I said this before, these things are injuries not disorders. The labelling of something can make the condition worst. I like what Gabor Mate said.. with people with mental isssues, you shouldn't ask what is the matter with them, but what happened to them.
 

InChristAlone

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I had a traumatic emergency birth, my mums appendix burst. I also have to attend to my personal factors daily... this also took decades. For me it's like self caring for a wild animal.

Yes, this is true, people are suffering and are clueless and looking for help in the wrong places. But, I think I said this before, these things are injuries not disorders. The labelling of something can make the condition worst. I like what Gabor Mate said.. with people with mental isssues, you shouldn't ask what is the matter with them, but what happened to them.
I really like this. I also believe labels on mental disorders is not very helpful. I'm choosing to focus on wellness and not what is wrong with me. I still stumble because its addicting to go looking for conditions you have. I have acted crazy.. but it IS NOT ME. I am a loving, caring, compassionate, patient, giving person... but only if I am choosing to give myself unconditional love. We are all beating ourselves up over every little thing that happens.
 

Greg says

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Gosh you have such good posts Greg, always so insightful and informative.

This is certainly true for me (technically diagnosed with OCD at 21 years of age). I experienced what I consider a very stressful birth situation and super scary childhood, it definitely set me on a brain pattern of overreactive emotions while constantly switched on high alert. It's taken me years (decades) to learn how to calm down.

From your link above: "Although epigenetic changes are frequently long lasting, they are not necessarily permanent. Consequently, interventions to reverse the negative biological and behavioral sequelae associated with child maltreatment are briefly discussed."

In my experience, the stress can be mitigated and UNDONE, but I have to attend to my personal factors DAILY in order to stay on an even keel (calm, peaceful, happy). It takes mindfulness for sure.

A problem I see is that lots of people are suffering, but they're clueless: either completely unaware that there's a problem or busy blaming others. If they actually make the HUGE step in acknowledging the issue, the next enormous hurdle is discovering truly healing therapies rather than masking symptoms.

In response to threat and injury, animals, including humans, execute biologically based, non-conscious action patterns that prepare them to meet the threat and defend themselves.

The very structure of trauma, including activation, dissociation and freezing are based on the evolution of survival bbehaviours. When threatened or injured, all animals draw from a "library" of possible responses. We orient, dodge, duck, stiffen, brace, retract, fight, flee, freeze, collapse, etc. All of these coordinated responses are somatically based- they are things that the body does to protect and defend itself. It is when these orienting and defending responses are overwhelmed that we see trauma.

The bodies of traumatized people portray "snapshots" of their unsuccessful attempts to defend themselves in the face of threat and injury. Trauma is a highly activated incomplete biological response to threat, frozen in time. For example, when we prepare to fight or to flee, muscles throughout our entire body are tensed in specific patterns of high energy readiness. When we are unable to complete the appropriate actions, we fail to discharge the tremendous energy generated by our survival preparations. This energy becomes fixed in specific patterns of neuromuscular readiness. The person then stays in a state of acute and then chronic arousal and dysfunction in the central nervous system. Traumatized people are not suffering from a disease in the normal sense of the word- they have become stuck in an aroused state. It is difficult if not impossible to function normally under these circumstances.”



Adverse childhood experiences exponentially increase not only the risk of addiction, but cancer, mental health issues, heart disease, EDs, suicide and early death. There is a real connection between our childhood and how that impacts our adult behaviours.
 

Blossom

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Great post as always @Greg says.
I also believe labels on mental disorders is not very helpful.
I agree especially when it's coming from someone in a judgmental way. Sometimes it seems like labeling a person can be damaging because it invalidates one's uniqueness and humanity. Nonetheless I found this article about the quiet borderline very enlightening and informative.
AAPEL - the quiet borderline
 

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