Borderline Personality Disorder Paper

According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA) (2013), Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a serious mental illness which negatively impacts relationships and an individual’s sense of self. BPD is characterized by pervasive instability of moods, the distortion of self-image and emotion regulation. A core aspect of BPD is an intense fear of abandonment. Whether real or imagined, this fear may lead to frantic efforts to avoid abandonment, panic or hostile behavior. Identity issues frequently affect intense changes in relationships, goals and interests. Impulsivity can become self-destructive and can manifest itself in “substance abuse, reckless driving, gambling, binge eating, unsafe sex, or unwise spending” (APA, 2013). Individuals
Originally, this term was used when a mental health professional was unsure of the correct diagnosis because the client manifested a combination of neurotic and psychotic symptoms. Many mental health professionals thought of these clients as being on the borderline and thus the term “borderline” came into being. Individuals who typically displayed hard to classify combinations of symptoms may have been actually demonstrating a concurrency of several mental disorders simultaneously (which borderlines often do). The APA (2013) lists the diagnostic criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder as follows:
A pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:
1. Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. (Note: Do not include suicidal or self-mutilating behavior covered in Criterion 5.)
2. A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and
659-672). The four personality disorders classified in cluster B, Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD), BPD, Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD) and Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). Cluster B disorders share common symptomatic difficulties with interpersonal relationships, patterns of dramatic behavior and distorted sense of self-image. With each of these disorders, individuals struggle to relate to others which can cause impairment in social functioning. Symptomatic criteria having similar dimensions have a tendency to overlap during the process of differential diagnosis. If the criterions are met for more than one disorder then they are both diagnosed. Two conditions that share similar symptoms with BPD are Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD) and Narcissistic Personality Disorder