Borderline personality disorder, or BPD for short, is a mental illness characterized by extreme emotional instability, unstable self-esteem that constantly changes to polar values, and a persistent tendency to self-destruction and damage. For foreign psychiatrists, this diagnosis is one of the most frequently observed, but in Russian clinics this type of disorder is diagnosed quite rarely. And this despite the fact that BPD, according to official statistics, affects at least 5% of the population!
Unfamiliar, frightening «I»
People with borderline personality disorder are referred to in professional circles as «borderlines». Such people are forced to live all their lives in some disorder with themselves. They are either inspired by their own uniqueness and originality, idealize their own “I” and positively accept the rest of the world, then they suddenly begin to engage in self-deprecation, devalue all their achievements, flare up with hatred for others or plunge into the abyss of apathy and despondency.
In order to somehow stabilize in space and time, such people urgently need an “anchor”. It could be an idea or a person. Moreover, in the latter case, the «border guards» fall into a real dependence on a partner. Their whole world begins to revolve around that person, and if that person disappears from their field of vision, people with BPD begin to seriously doubt their own existence. Loneliness is simply fatal for them.
Like a powder keg
- Unlike from schizophrenics on the border reality and spontaneously arising delirium in their head, people with a borderline identity disorder lead constant dialogue not with “independent interlocutor, but with themselves.
- From those who suffer schizophrenic disorder patients, which are deepened most of the time in their own experiences and focused, first of all, on yourself, people with BPD also have a very high level emotionality. They are all perfect beyond. randomly spoken word can make impulsive «border guards» abruptly change anger to mercy. And now you are no longer the most beloved friend, but worst enemy.
- Similarity among patients with schizophrenia, especially suffering from auditory hallucinations and patients with BPD — acute emotional a reaction that is dangerous both for themselves and and for those who are in the radius defeat. Aggression can be directed outside, but more often it is directed at the myself. So many cases of suicide and prolonged depression, as well as numerous self-harm.
- Perhaps, the most striking difference between schizophrenia and borderline identity disorder in that if the first is considered incurable and can only progress with age, then from BPD people successfully get rid of. True, treatment takes a lot of time and effort, but it is still possibly.
By the way, if the mechanism of occurrence of schizophrenia is not yet fully understood, and the symptoms are extremely diverse, then borderline disorder has quite clear causes. As always, «legs grow» from old childhood problems, lack of parental attention and lack of support.
Some mistakenly define borderline disorder as one of the symptoms of schizophrenic personality disorder. But the causes of the appearance and the course of diseases are completely different. Although, of course, both conditions are equally dangerous for the patient himself, which is why it is so important to seek help from specialists in a timely manner.