Borderline personality disorder (BPD) can cause a wide range of symptoms, which can be broadly grouped into 4 main areas.
The 4 areas are:
Each of these areas is described in more detail below.
If you have BPD, you may experience a range of often intense negative emotions, such as:
You may have severe mood swings over a short space of time.
It's common for people with BPD to feel suicidal with despair, and then feel reasonably positive a few hours later. Some people feel better in the morning and some in the evening. The pattern varies, but the key sign is that your moods swing in unpredictable ways.
If you have suicidal thoughts:
If you've been diagnosed with BPD, tell someone you trust about your condition. Give this person the contact details of your care team and ask him or her to contact the team if they become concerned about your behaviour.
Different types of thoughts can affect people with BPD, including:
These types of beliefs may be psychotic and a sign you're becoming more unwell. It's important to get help if you're struggling with delusions.
If you have BPD, there are 2 main types of impulses you may find extremely difficult to control:
If you have BPD, you may feel that other people abandon you when you most need them, or that they get too close and smother you.
When people fear abandonment, it can lead to feelings of intense anxiety and anger. You may make frantic efforts to prevent being left alone, such as:
Alternatively, you may feel others are smothering, controlling or crowding you, which also provokes intense fear and anger. You may then respond by acting in ways to make people go away, such as emotionally withdrawing, rejecting them or using verbal abuse.
These 2 patterns may result in an unstable "love-hate" relationship with certain people.
Many people with BPD seem to be stuck with a very rigid "black-white" view of relationships. Either a relationship is perfect and that person is wonderful, or the relationship is doomed and that person is terrible. People with BPD seem unable or unwilling to accept any sort of "grey area" in their personal life and relationships.
For many people with BPD, emotional relationships (including relationships with professional carers) involve "go away/please don't go" states of mind, which is confusing for them and their partners. Sadly, this can often lead to break-ups.
Page last reviewed: Sun Jul 2022 Next review due: Wed Feb 2020