Borderline Personality Disorder
Borderline personality disorder is a condition in which people have long-term patterns of unstable or turbulent emotions, such as feelings about themselves and others. These inner experiences often cause them to take impulsive actions and have chaotic relationships.
The term "borderline" is a misnomer. These patients were first described sixty years ago by psychoanalysts who noted they did poorly in treatment, and therefore theorized that this is a form of pathology lying on the border between psychosis and neurosis. Although we no longer believe that patients with borderline personality disorder have an underlying psychosis, the name "borderline" has stuck. A much more descriptive label would be "emotionally unstable: personality disorder." The central feature of this disorder is instability, affecting patients in many sectors of their lives.
People with this disorder are unlike the average person in a few ways. A person with borderline personality disorder has problems socializing and maintaining relationships because they have an inability to control their emotional reaction. This can be summed up to the incapacity to simultaneously appreciate an acquaintance’s negative and positive personality traits.
The causes of borderline personality disorder are environmental as far as current understanding would indicate. Risk factors of this disorder include; abandonment in childhood or adolescence, disrupted family life, poor communication and sexual abuse. This personality disorder tends to occur more often in women and among hospitalized psychiatric patients.
Treatments include anti-depressants, anti-anxiety medications which will take the impulse away from patients and individual and group therapy. A number of different therapeutic methods have been tried with borderline patients. The largest clinical literature has come from psychoanalytically oriented therapists. Traditionally, psychotherapists focus on building a strong...