Can someone tell me about Borderline personality disorder?

[Peppermint Tea.♥]

Anyone who has it, or just someone who knows about it, please? Also, how and when is diagnosis possible?

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

I notice you're in England, so I will NOT be mentioning the DSM criteria which you often see on this site because it isn't applicable to you. Instead, I will use the ICD-10. In it, there is emotionally unstable personality disorder. It has 2 sub-types: impulsive type and borderline type. The borderline type is very similar to borderline personality disorder EXCEPT there is no mention of dissociative symptoms. The impulsive type is self-explanatory.

The purpose of dividing emotionally unstable personality disorder into those 2 sub-types is when you look at the diagnostic criteria in the DSM-IV-TR for borderline personality disorder, you can easily see these distinct features. The usage of the sub-types helps for clarifying the symptoms because in the DSM-IV-TR, you need to have at least 5 of 9 symptoms. As a result, there can be over 100 people with different combinations of symptoms and all have the same diagnosis, which makes it become incredibly ambiguous and vague. The sub-types have their own issues though.

Before considering such a diagnosis, you need to meet the criteria for a general personality disorder. This includes having the symptoms since around childhood until present with no break in their occurrence, they occur regardless of context and are extremely resistant to being changed.

Below is a link to part of the ICD-10 so you can see what emotionally unstable personality disorder entails:

http://apps.who.int/classifications/...line/?gf60.htm

For comparison purposes, here is a link to the DSM-IV-TR criteria for borderline personality disorder:

http://www.fortunecity.com/campus/ps...81/bpd-dsm.htm

In terms of treatment, most often there is a special type of cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy called dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT). It was made specifically for borderline personality disorder and has a high rate of success. There will also be pharmacological treatments (i.e. medications), however, it depends what symptoms you have and the intensity of them. Anti-psychotics are usually used to address the dissociative symptoms present only in the DSM-IV-TR, however, such medications are effective in helping to maintain one's mood/emotions as they tend to be quite sedating.

[Thirteen]

Hey Hester,

As someone who has been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, I can give you some information.

First of all, one important thing about diagnosis (if you're even considering this for yourself) is that, it's uncommon (to the point of being controversial) for somebody under 18 to be diagnosed with this, unless their symptoms are extreme. The reasoning behind this is because, well, teenagers are still developing their personality until then, really.

The user above brought up some good information, if you'd like to read up on it. But, if you have any other questions, feel free to post here, or even PM me.