What Is Borderline Personality Disorder?
Borderline personality disorder also referred to as BPD, is a mental health disorder in which a person has extreme difficulties in regulating their emotions and thoughts. People diagnosed with BPD have continuous distorted thinking patterns of their self-image, relationships, and behavior. Along with these negative patterns, people with BPD experience severe mood swings such as heightened anxiety, depression, and irritability. These strong instabilities often lead patients to reckless and impulsive behavior if not treated. Many people with BPD experience behavior that include substance abuse, promiscuous relationships, self-harm, and possibly suicide.
There are approximately four million people in the U.S. that are diagnosed with BPD; an estimated …show more content…
People unfamiliar with what they are experiencing or people misdiagnosed, may not know where to find a treatment or may receive the wrong form of treatment. This may be a possible contributing factor as to why the BPD population has such a high rate of suicidality and suicide. Recent statistics show that those with BPD have a suicidality rate as high as 70% and a suicide rate as high as 10% as opposed to those who do not have BPD (Lis, E., Greenfield, B., Henry, M., Guilé, J. M., & Dougherty, G., 2007) (Salters-Pedneault, …show more content…
The amygdala, shaped like an almond, is a set of nervous tissue that is located in the interior of the temporal lobe. The function of the amygdala is to regulate fear and aggression. Patients with BPD are found to have a much smaller amygdala as opposed to someone who does not, thus causing it to be overactive. The more overactive the amygdala is the higher the intensity of the emotion is experienced and the longer period of time it takes the person to calm down.
Alongside the amygdala is the hippocampus. The hippocampus, shaped like a horseshoe, associates memory and attaches an emotion to it. People with BPD may have experienced a traumatic event as a child storing these memories in their hippocampus to later be retrieved as a teen or adult causing reckless or impulsive
There are approximately four million people in the U.S. that are diagnosed with BPD; an estimated …show more content…
People unfamiliar with what they are experiencing or people misdiagnosed, may not know where to find a treatment or may receive the wrong form of treatment. This may be a possible contributing factor as to why the BPD population has such a high rate of suicidality and suicide. Recent statistics show that those with BPD have a suicidality rate as high as 70% and a suicide rate as high as 10% as opposed to those who do not have BPD (Lis, E., Greenfield, B., Henry, M., Guilé, J. M., & Dougherty, G., 2007) (Salters-Pedneault, …show more content…
The amygdala, shaped like an almond, is a set of nervous tissue that is located in the interior of the temporal lobe. The function of the amygdala is to regulate fear and aggression. Patients with BPD are found to have a much smaller amygdala as opposed to someone who does not, thus causing it to be overactive. The more overactive the amygdala is the higher the intensity of the emotion is experienced and the longer period of time it takes the person to calm down.
Alongside the amygdala is the hippocampus. The hippocampus, shaped like a horseshoe, associates memory and attaches an emotion to it. People with BPD may have experienced a traumatic event as a child storing these memories in their hippocampus to later be retrieved as a teen or adult causing reckless or impulsive