Borderline Personality Disorder Treatment

Borderline disorder is a personality disorder characterized by emotional dysregulation, impulsive or self-destructive behaviors, and troubled relationships.. This disorder is usually associated with a series of different emotional, behavioral, eating, and personality disorders, among others. These comorbidities will trigger a series of symptoms that will complicate the same symptoms of borderline disorder.

Among the most frequent comorbidities are anxiety disorders such as generalized anxiety, obsessive compulsive, panic, or post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as mood disorders such as depression, dysthymia, cyclothymia, and bipolarity. Within eating disorders we have anorexia and bulimia. In the field of personality disorders are the paranoid, dependent, narcissistic and antisocial. Regarding addictions, the consumption of alcohol, drugs, sex and games is usually seen more.

Because it is a very complex and complicated disorder it is important that people suffering from BPD seek specialized professional help

since due to its complexity it deserves a more detailed and comprehensive approach at the same time. For all the aforementioned, I want to begin to deepen the subject by making the concept known.

• We recommend you read: "How does borderline personality disorder affect affective relationships?"

What is borderline personality disorder?

It is the most frequent personality disorder in the female gender and is characterized by emotional dysregulation, severe instability and interpersonal problems. This constant imbalance causes people who suffer to carry out acts of self-harm and suicide attempts. Therefore, it is considered a high-risk problem. According to the DSM-5, the symptoms are:

• Impulsiveness
• Affective instability and reactivity to mood
• identity alteration
• Self-destructive, self-injurious, and suicidal behaviors
• Unstable and dysfunctional interpersonal relationships
• Fear of real or imagined abandonment
• Vacuum sensation
• Difficulty managing anger
• paranoid ideas

The causes of the disorder are very complex, not only genetic or hereditary factors come into play, but rather the very physiology of the brain and the environment, that is, the way in which the environment influences us.

What are the types?

The TLP is classified as follows:

1. Impulsive borderline personality

They are those people who seek very strong, risky, unpredictable, susceptible, very energetic emotions and tend to get bored quickly. In addition, have suicidal thoughts and self-injurious behaviors.

2. discouraged borderline personality

They tend to be codependent, seek approval and acceptance due to their feeling of inferiority and inadequacy, and are not very assertive, which is why they are prone to depression.

3. borderline petulant personality

They are pessimistic, impatient, predictable, irritable, critical, with little tolerance for frustration, which ends in outbursts of anger. They are depressive, paranoid people and use passive-aggressive behavior.

4. self-destructive borderline personality

Introverted personality who do not love each other, fear abandonment, codependent, depressive, self-destructive and with a high suicidal tendency.

What are the psychotherapeutic treatments?

BPD is addressed in different ways:

1. Cognitive behavioral therapy

The goal of this therapy is to change the irrational thoughts and maladaptive behavior associated with the disorder.

2. dialectical behavior therapy

Its objective is to train patients in the regulation of their emotions., adaptive coping skills to daily life events and thus improve intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships.

3. Mindfulness-Based Therapy

The objective of this is to help connect thoughts and emotions through the reflective function of the mind. This will generate more appropriate behaviors and better interpersonal relationships.

4. schema therapy

An innovative and integrated approach to other therapeutic approaches such as cognitive behavioral, Gestalt, attachment theory and dynamic elements, which allows for a comprehensive approach.. Schema therapy aims to identify and overcome cognitive and behavioral avoidance; and discover the origins of early dysfunctional schemas and the influence of all this in his life and finally he is trained to develop strategies psychological so that the healthy adult is the one who takes the role and faces life in an adaptive or adequate way and at the same time heals the other ways adaptive.

What are the comorbidities?

According to Gasulla's studies, the most frequent comorbidities in BPD are:

• Anxiety: BPD and Generalized Anxiety Disorder, panic with agoraphobia, social phobia. It is very common for those who suffer from BPD to manifest symptoms of anxiety of any kind.

• OCD. The prevalence rate that exists in personality disorders in patients with anxiety disorders are high since that there are 35% with PTSD, 47% with panic with agoraphobia and with generalized anxiety, 48% with social phobia and 52% with OCD.

• ADHD. Having ADHD in childhood positively influences the appearance of the clinical characteristics of a BPD in adolescence and adulthood.

• substance use disorder. Patients with BPD tend to consume alcohol and drug abuse is a frequent and relatively stable practice in this type of population. Alcohol consumption can be seen as an attempt to regulate or evade the negative emotions suffered by these patients, that is, as a maladaptive coping technique.

• dissociative identity disorder. Dissociative identity disorder is associated with borderline personality disorder and vice versa, and people with both disorders have increased comorbidity and trauma.

• Antisocial, narcissistic, dependent personality disorder. This antisocial disorder and BPD have an overlap in symptoms and risk factors, suggesting that they might reflect the same form of psychopathology. Research has consistently found high rates of comorbidity between narcissistic borderline personality disorder due to the type of attachment they had in childhood. Likewise, there are studies where evidence of the relationship between BPD and dependent personality disorder.

• psychotic disorder. There are studies that validate the psychosis that can appear in BPD due to the stress experienced by these patients, the symptoms The most common psychotics are auditory hallucinations, similar to those that appear in schizophrenia with negative content and criticism.

• Sleep disorder. BPD is associated with different types of sleep disorders, whether it be sleep continuity, slow-wave sleep disturbances, and REM sleep.

• Depressive disorder, dysthymia, cyclothymia, and bipolar disorder. Dysthymic disorder arises when a person has a low mood compared to patients healthy for a prolonged period of at least 2 years, it has been seen that it is also related to the TLP. Cyclothymia is very typical of bipolar disorder and this is closely related to BPD, which aggravates the patient's situation.

• eating disorders. This disorder is very common in BPD impulsive and controlling types.

• Asperger. Despite being different problems, they have some characteristics in common, such as the inability to develop and maintain optimal social relationships.

conclusions

It can be said that borderline disorder is a personality disorder characterized by impulsiveness, emotional instability and maladaptive behaviors that harm their relationships on a personal and interpersonal. On the other hand, with regard to comorbidities, borderline disorder is associated with disorders such as: generalized anxiety, depressive disorders, ADHD, OCD, PTSD, as well as sleep disorders, feeding; narcissistic, paranoid, antisocial personality disorders; psychotic disorders, substance dependence, etc. This is not to say that everyone with borderline disorder has all the disorders. mentioned, but it will depend on the causes and the type of borderline disorder that each person presents. patient.