Borderline personality disorder often occurs with other mental illnesses. Co-occurring disorders can make it harder to diagnose and treat borderline personality disorder, especially if symptoms of other illnesses overlap with the symptoms of borderline personality disorder.
For example, a person with borderline personality disorder may be more likely to also experience symptoms of depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, or eating disorders. Borderline personality disorder is also associated with a significantly higher rate of self-harm and suicidal behavior than the general public.
People with borderline personality disorder who are thinking of harming themselves or attempting suicide need help right away. The service is available to everyone. The deaf and hard of hearing can contact the Lifeline via TTY at All calls are free and confidential. The treatments described on this page are just some of the options that may be available to a person with borderline personality disorder.
Psychotherapy is the first-line treatment for people with borderline personality disorder. A therapist can provide one-on-one treatment between the therapist and patient, or treatment in a group setting. Therapist-led group sessions may help teach people with borderline personality disorder how to interact with others and how to effectively express themselves. It is important that people in therapy get along with, and trust their therapist. The very nature of borderline personality disorder can make it difficult for people with the disorder to maintain a comfortable and trusting bond with their therapist.
Because the benefits are unclear, medications are not typically used as the primary treatment for borderline personality disorder. However, in some cases, a psychiatrist may recommend medications to treat specific symptoms such as:.
Certain medications can cause different side effects in different people. Talk to your doctor about what to expect from a particular medication. Some people with borderline personality disorder experience severe symptoms and need intensive, often inpatient, care. Others may use some outpatient treatments but never need hospitalization or emergency care.
Families and caregivers of people with borderline personality disorder may also benefit from therapy. Some borderline personality disorder therapies include family members, caregivers, or loved ones in treatment sessions.
This type of therapy helps by:. More information about finding a health care provider or treatment for mental disorders in general is available on our Help for Mental Illness webpage. Clinical trials are research studies that look at new ways to prevent, detect, or treat diseases and conditions. The goal of clinical trials is to determine if a new test or treatment works and is safe.
Although individuals may benefit from being part of a clinical trial, participants should be aware that the primary purpose of a clinical trial is to gain new scientific knowledge so that others may be better helped in the future.
Researchers at NIMH and around the country conduct many studies with patients and healthy volunteers. We have new and better treatment options today because of what clinical trials uncovered years ago. Talk to your health care provider about clinical trials, their benefits and risks, and whether one is right for you. Unless otherwise specified, NIMH information and publications are in the public domain and available for use free of charge. Citation of the NIMH is appreciated. Statistics NIMH statistics pages include statistics on the prevalence, treatment, and costs of mental illness for the population of the United States.
Help for Mental Illnesses If you or someone you know has a mental illness, there are ways to get help. Clinical Trials If you or a friend or family member are thinking about taking part in clinical research, this page contains basic information about clinical trials.
Stakeholder Engagement Find out how NIMH engages a range of stakeholder organizations as part of its efforts to ensure the greatest public health impact of the research we support. Education and Awareness Use these free mental health education and outreach materials in your community and on social media to spread the word about topics like eating disorders, autism awareness, and suicide prevention.
Application Process Explore the NIMH grant application process, including how to write your grant, how to submit your grant, and how the review process works. Small Business Research Learn about funding opportunities for small businesses. But a personality disorder is not a character judgment.
This causes consistent problems for you in many areas of your life, such as your relationships, career, and your feelings about yourself and others. But most importantly, these patterns can be changed! Giving yourself permission to have these feelings can take away a lot of their power. Try to simply experience your feelings without judgment or criticism. Let go of the past and the future and focus exclusively on the present moment. Mindfulness techniques can be very effective in this regard.
Engaging your sense is one of the quickest and easiest ways to quickly self-soothe. You will need to experiment to find out which sensory-based stimulation works best for you.
Here are some ideas to get started:. If you want to calm down, try something soothing such as hot tea or soup. Light a candle, smell the flowers, try aromatherapy, spritz your favorite perfume, or whip up something in the kitchen that smells good. You may find that you respond best to strong smells, such as citrus, spices, and incense. Focus on an image that captures your attention. This can be something in your immediate environment a great view, a beautiful flower arrangement, a favorite painting or photo or something in your imagination that you visualize.
Try listening to loud music, ringing a buzzer, or blowing a whistle when you need a jolt. To calm down, turn on soothing music or listen to the soothing sounds of nature, such as wind, birds, or the ocean. This is where the impulsivity of borderline personality disorder BPD comes in. They make you feel better, even if just for a brief moment. But the long-term costs are extremely high. Regaining control of your behavior starts with learning to tolerate distress.
The ability to tolerate distress will help you press pause when you have the urge to act out. Instead of reacting to difficult emotions with self-destructive behaviors, you will learn to ride them out while remaining in control of the experience. The toolkit teaches you how to:. It will also teach you how to move from being emotionally shut down to experiencing your emotions fully. This allows you to experience the full range of positive emotions such as joy, peace, and fulfillment that are also cut off when you attempt to avoid negative feelings.
The following grounding exercise is a simple, quick way to put the brakes on impulsivity, calm down, and regain control. It can make a big difference in just a few short minutes. Feel your feet on the floor. Feel your hands in your lap. Concentrate on your breathing , taking slow, deep breaths. Breathe in slowly. Pause for a count of three. Then slowly breathe out, once more pausing for a count of three. Continue to do this for several minutes. All you need is something to capture your focus long enough for the negative impulse to go away.
Anything that draws your attention can work, but distraction is most effective when the activity is also soothing. In addition to the sensory-based strategies mentioned previously, here are some things you might try:. Watch TV.
Do something you enjoy that keeps you busy. This could be anything: gardening, painting, playing an instrument, knitting, reading a book, playing a computer game, or doing a Sudoku or word puzzle. Throw yourself into work.
You can also distract yourself with chores and errands: cleaning your house, doing yard work, going grocery shopping, grooming your pet, or doing the laundry. Get active. Vigorous exercise is a healthy way to get your adrenaline pumping and let off steam.
Call a friend. Talking to someone you trust can be a quick and highly effective way to distract yourself, feel better, and gain some perspective. Recognizing your interpersonal blind spot is the first step. When you stop blaming others, you can start taking steps to improve your relationships and your social skills. Instead of jumping to usually negative conclusions, consider alternative motivations.
Before you act on those feelings:. One large study called the McLean Study of Adult Development , which followed BPD patients for 12 years, found that 74 percent of participants had no active symptoms after 6 years, and only 6 percent relapsed in the following 6 years. This is particularly important as young people are developing their identity and sense of self, which is made incredibly difficult for young people with BPD symptoms.
Another reason experts urge earlier diagnosis of BPD is to lessen inaccurate diagnosis of more common disorders like ADHD , depression and bipolar disorder. Sometimes these are co-occurring disorders, but often they are misdiagnoses. And no medication is going to correct the invalidation that these people feel.
BPD patients who are admitted to Dr. When they are discharged, he says, half are on no meds at all. There are a number of specialized psychotherapies that have been developed to treat BPD, but the gold standard treatment — the one with the most evidence for its effectiveness — is called dialectical behavioral therapy, or DBT. When people feel accepted and understood, it has a calming effect and allows them to learn skills to regulate emotions and develop safer, more effective alternatives to the self-destructive behaviors they have been using.
DBT skills are very effective for getting patients to stop self-injury and suicidality, Dr. What Is Borderline Personality Disorder? Get this as a PDF. Enter email to download and get news and resources in your inbox. Share this on social. And why it's now being diagnosed and treated in teenagers Caroline Miller. What are the signs of BPD? How is BPD treated? Quick Read. Full Article. What is BPD? Emotional dysregulation.
Self-destructive behavior. Criteria for diagnosing BPD. Diagnosing teenagers. Why early diagnosis is crucial. Caroline Miller. Caroline Miller is the editorial director of the Child Mind Institute. She is a veteran magazine, newspaper and website editor … Read Bio.
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