Borderline Personality Disorder

[Angrboda]

When I first started being treated for my illness (20 years ago), borderline personality disorder was a controversial diagnosis, and in some ways, the disorder was not well understood at the time. If things are still much the same, then it may still be difficult to understand, diagnose and treat. (Most common treatment for it I know is EBT, or emotional behavioral therapy, but that depends on the symptoms.) Beyond that, BPD is characterized as an Axis II diagnosis by the APA. Axis I disorders are typically those resulting from some organic defect of the brain (an example is depression or dementia); Axis II is typically the more pschogenically or psychologically caused disorders, including most of the personality disorders. This categorization can be somewhat artificial as Axis II disorders can have Axis I features and vice versa (during high stress, a person with BPD may develop psychotic symptoms for example). As to its etiology, BPD is/was thought to be a result of specific environmental factors in the person's childhood development (such as sexual abuse or other abuse, for example), and results in certain, for lack of a better term, "compromised personality traits"; these being ways of behaving, of perceiving the world, and patterns of responding to needs and stresses that are both relatively persistent, as well as being dysfunctional in certain commonly displayed ways. Not being up to date on the disorder, I'll leave you to learn the specifics of this from a more official and up-to-date source.

Best of luck.