Boderline Personality Disorder
Ailey O’Toole
Staff Writer
In continuing my advocacy for a cultural conversation about mental health, I would like to shine some light on an essentially unknown mental illness. You may have heard of it if you’ve seen the 1999 film “Girl, Interrupted” in which Winona Ryder’s character is diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). BPD is a mental illness that has just begun to receive some recognition over the last decade. Marsha Linehan, a leading expert on BPD, explained the disorder.
“Borderline individuals are the psychological equivalent of third-degree burn patient,” Linehan said. “They simply have, so to speak, no emotional skin…Even the slightest touch or movement can create immense suffering.”
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is a handbook mental health professionals use that provides standard criteria for classifying mental disorders.
To be diagnosed with BPD, one must have five of the following symptoms: frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment; unstable and intense interpersonal relationships; lack of clear sense of identity; impulsiveness in behaviors such as substance abuse, sex, shoplifting; recurrent suicidal threats or gestures or self-harming behavior; severe mood shifts and extreme reactivity to situational stresses; chronic feelings of emptiness; frequent and inappropriate displays of anger; transient, stress-related feelings of unreality or paranoia.
All of that is fancy speak for symptoms that can be grouped into four areas: mood instability (a.k.a. rapid mood cycling), impulsivity, interpersonal psychopathology (difficulties in relationships), and distortions of perception (such as unmitigated paranoia). Because of these symptoms, a borderline patient can be described as suffering from a kind of “emotional hemophilia.” She lacks the clotting mechanism to moderate her spurts of feeling. The borderline patient may attempt suicide often not with the intent to die but to feel something to confirm she is alive.
A primary focus in diagnosing BPD is symptoms of “mood swings” and “racing thoughts,” which are common patient complaints that usually get slapped with a diagnosis of depression or bipolar disorder (manic depression).
For those afflicted with bipolar disorder or depression, episodes of depression or mania (mental illness marked by periods of great euphoria and delusions) represent departures from day-to-day functioning, and those mood changes usually last days to weeks.
The borderline’s mood variations are more transient, lasting minutes to hours and are more often a reaction to environmental stimuli.
Another common symptom is a lack of self-identity, which ultimately leads to low self-esteem. Borderlines can be seen as actors who are constantly looking for a good role that will suit their desire to win the affections of those around them. BPD patients are highly dependent on others’ reassurance and can desperately cling to those they are trying to impress.
If you or someone you know may be struggling with this disorder, please seek help from the Counseling Center.
THE CAROLINIAN 