How do people act with borderline personality disorder?

Question

I have had a relationship with a woman who kept pushing me away but at the same time she would pull me in. Now that the relationship is over and she is married she wants to be close to me and be friends. But she tells me that if the friendship can not be true then why put out the effort. A friend of mine told me she may have BPD. What is BPD???

Answer 1

Hi there,

I'm sorry to hear about this confusing relationship. Let me list the symptoms of BPD:

-intense bouts of anger, depression, and anxiety that may last only hours, or at most a day.
-impulsive aggression, self-injury, and drug or alcohol abuse.
-view themselves as fundamentally bad, or unworthy. mistreated, bored, empty, and have little idea who they are.
-people with BPD feel isolated and lacking in social support, and may result in frantic efforts to avoid being alone.
-highly unstable patterns of social relationships.
-attitudes towards family, friends, and loved ones may suddenly shift from idealization (great admiration and love) to devaluation (intense anger and dislike).
-they switch unexpectedly to the other extreme and angrily accuse the other person of not caring for them at all.
-individuals with BPD are highly sensitive to rejection, reacting with anger and distress to such mild separations.
-fears of abandonment
-feeling lost/worthless.
-Suicide threats and attempts may occur along with anger at perceived abandonment and disappointments.
-other impulsive behaviors, such as excessive spending, binge eating and risky sex.

Hope this helps. Take care of you!

Answer 2

I have BPD. Everything you have read from the others is true. I have been in therapy for 9 years and the "accepted" term of treatment is 10 years. I am so much better than "back then." I still see things as black or white and maybe I always will. That is the least of my problems. I hope your friend gets help. It is not curable, but treatable.

Answer 3

Borderline personality disorder affects how people feel about themselves, how they relate to others and how they behave.

People with BPD often have an unstable sense of who they are. That is, their self-image or sense of self often rapidly changes. They typically view themselves as evil or bad, and sometimes they may feel as if they don't exist at all. This unstable self-image can lead to frequent changes in jobs, friendships, goals, values and gender identity.

Relationships are usually in turmoil. People with BPD often experience a love-hate relationship with others. They may idealize someone one moment and then abruptly and dramatically shift to fury and hate over perceived slights or even misunderstandings. This is because people with the disorder have difficulty accepting gray areas — things are either black or white. For instance, in the eyes of a person with BPD, someone is either good or evil. And that same person may be good one day and evil the next.

In addition, people with BPD often engage in impulsive and risky behavior. This behavior often winds up hurting them, whether emotionally, financially or physically. For instance, they may drive recklessly, engage in unsafe sex, take illicit drugs or go on spending or gambling sprees. People with BPD also often engage in suicidal behavior or deliberately injure themselves for emotional relief.

Other signs and symptoms of borderline personality disorder may include:

Strong emotions that wax and wane frequently
Intense but short episodes of anxiety or depression
Inappropriate anger, sometimes escalating into physical confrontations
Difficulty controlling emotions or impulses
Fear of being alone

Answer 4

Borderline Personality Disorder can be pretty devastating.

People who have BPD typically have rapidly cycling emotions (think extreme mood swings) and difficulty in maintaining normal human relationships. They can go from thinking you're perfect to thinking you're the scum of the earth over something as silly or inconsequential as your disagreeing with them.

Answer 5

Borderline people tend to have really volatile relationships they have swings in thier mood where they can get very angry about things that may seem trivial to others. Then they can turn around and feel bad about what they did and get depressed. They worry about alienating and losing people.
They tend to see things as black and white. This is why they have problems because you are either the greatest person in the world to them or you do one small thing wrong and you are the route of all evil.

Answer 6

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/bpd.cfm

this is one of the best sites for most mental disorders
I gave you the link directed for BPD ok