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- Hey, Psych2Goers.
Welcome back to another video.
Thank you all so much
for the loving support you've given us.
It enables us to present you with continued insight
on everyday psychology.
So let's begin.
Personality disorders come in many different forms
and affect people differently.
Borderline personality disorder
is a specific condition
that primarily affects self-perception and relationships.
People with the condition typically experience
intense emotional instability
that deeply impacts everyday life.
Please be advised that this is strictly
for informative purposes.
Do not self-diagnose and do not use this
to diagnose or stigmatize others.
Please speak with a healthcare provider
or a mental health professional
for medical or mental health advice
in case you relate to any of the points mentioned.
To better understand this condition,
we'll be discussing nine things
about BPD that you need to know.
Number one, fear of abandonment.
People with BPD often experience
an intense sensitivity to abandonment.
They may feel that the people around them
are growing distant, regardless of the truth.
They view small changes in behavior
as a sign that their partner or friend
is growing distant.
They resort to clinging behavior
in an effort to keep the person from leaving.
Two, persistent and wide mood swings.
BPD is exhausting.
People with the condition
often experience intense mood swings
that can last hours to days.
Moods vary from extreme happiness
to sadness and irritability.
And may happen within the same day.
These moods can be triggered rather easily
as typically people with BPD are sensitive.
In some cases, they become violent.
However, in other cases,
they keep that intense anger bottled up,
causing more psychological harm.
Number three, paranoid thinking.
Has paranoia become your nemesis?
BPD can cause a person to become paranoid
and may perhaps lose contact with reality
for small period of time.
They feel that people are trying to work against them
and fear others' intentions.
They may act out on these hunches
and cut contact with others to protect themselves.
High levels of stress may cause someone
to disassociate with themselves.
And in more severe cases,
can cause a psychotic episode.
Four, emptiness.
Have you ever felt that your life lacks meaning?
Most people at some point in life experience
such an emotion due to difficult times.
People with BPD, however,
may feel chronically empty all the time.
They feel stuck in a dark tunnel
of emotional numbness or despair.
These are difficult feelings
and they may not know how to handle them.
In some cases, they may struggle
with self-image and accepting who they are.
This, along with fears of abandonment
and mood swings may cause a person to feel empty.
This feeling can be dangerous
and contributes to other problems,
such as addiction.
Five, impulsivity.
Are spending sprees on unnecessary items
and binge eating a part of your routine?
Do others lament your extra recklessness?
BPD can also cause a person
to experience intense happiness,
so they may indulge in a range of impulsive activities.
In this, BPD parallels bipolar disorder
and is often misdiagnosed as such.
When these behaviors occur,
only during phases of elevated mood,
they may be signs of a mood disorder,
not borderline personality disorder.
Six, splitting.
Are you familiar with the black
and white thinking phenomenon?
It's the act of being only able
to think at the extremes with no regard
to a middle ground.
Splitting is another term for black and white thinking.
People with BPD flip flop
from one extreme emotion to another.
For instance, someone may feel an intense love
and admiration for a person in their life
at one moment, yet if they feel
that the person wronged them,
those warm fuzzy feelings
may turn into bitter hatred and resentment.
This makes the relationships highly unstable.
Even minute inconveniences
and misunderstandings can flare these extreme emotions.
Seven, trust issues.
Do you overanalyze situations and feel you're being slighted
in every situation?
People with BPD do so despite the thoughts
being completely irrational.
They may find it hard to trust others
for no reason at all.
They feel that they understand others' intensions
but they're always way off.
They may also think that another person
is cruel to them over a small inconvenience.
Eight, risk factors for development
can be environmental and/or inherited.
Developing BPD depends on a few different variables.
In some cases, genetics is responsible
if a relative has the disorder.
In other cases,
people who experience highly traumatic events
may develop the disorder.
Experiences such as separation from someone
at a young age to childhood abuse and violence
are also influences.
Generally, a person begins to show signs
of BPD in early adulthood.
And nine, change in interest and values.
How often do you feel at odds with yourself?
Does it also permeate to those around you?
A person with BPD may have polarizing views
on themselves and others.
Similar to splitting, they may feel night
and day differences on various topics,
especially relating to self.
For instance, a person may feel that they have no value
to anyone at one moment
but feel the opposite in another.
Their interests, values and relationships
are very unstable and lack consistency.
BPD is a complex and stigmatized condition.
It's important to know that people struggling
with BPD are not necessarily bad people.
Rather, they're people in need of support.
BPD comes with a lot of emotional impulsivity
and instability, so it's important
to reach out if you feel that you're struggling.
What are you thoughts
about how the condition affects people?
Let us know in the comments below.
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Thanks for watching.
We'll see you soon.