Question by : Do I have Borderline Personality Disorder?
Well, I’ve always felt something was wrong with me. I have been depressed for the past 5 years. (I’m fifteen, going on sixteen now). I have taken many online tests, and every single one of them had one thing at the least in common; Borderline Personality Disorder. It always above 70% sure, highest was 92%.

A quote from a website:
“Borderline personality disorder is a condition in which people have long-term patterns of unstable or turbulent emotions, such as feelings about themselves and others.

These inner experiences often cause them to take impulsive actions and have chaotic relationships.
Causes, incidence, and risk factors

The causes of borderline personality disorder (BPD) are unknown. Genetic, family, and social factors are thought to play roles.

Risk factors for BPD include:

Abandonment in childhood or adolescence

Disrupted family life

Poor communication in the family

Sexual abuse”

I feel I fit the bill on this, abandoned and adopted, I can’t communicate well with my parents, I’m not good in relationships and if I do get into friendships I can’t always maintain them. I am emotionally, socially, and mentally broken in my opinion. I have low self esteem, I have been suicidal and I am over it, but think about death every day. I’m not here for you guys to tell me I need therapy and need to find help from others. I’m looking for your honest opinion on whether you think I am Borderline or an other sort of personality disorder. Thanks.

Best answer:

Answer by Carys
Reading things online is a bad idea. The thing is people read symptoms online and think they fit them perfectly, wrong. The internet does not explain how severe the symptoms have to be. Also the problem with personality disorders is that a lot of people can have “traits” not symptoms of the disorder but that does not mean they have a disorder personality. For it to be diagnosed as disorder you have to have full blown symptoms which are severe, severe enough to put you in hospital. Also you have to be over 18 years old due to a persons personality changing way up until your 20’s.

BPD is severe. I was diagnosed in January and its like living in hell, honestly. I have suffered through eating disorders, multiple suicide attempts, self harm on a daily basis, constant suicide thoughts, depression, severe anxiety, my mood switches constantly due to the smallest of things. Its like you are not in control of your body at all. The main symptoms in BPD are suicidal ideation (reoccurring thoughts and attempts) and self harm in some kind of way as well as fear of abandonment and unstable self image and instability of mood.

The abandonment issue (which is a main symptom), that isn’t just thinking oh please don’t leave me, its being so clingy and obsessive over someone. I have beaten my boyfriend in arguments, like punched, kicked, slapped him and even ripped his clothes off in a desperate attempt to make him stay with me. I have had images of me actually beating him until he is unconscious so he will not leave me.

I self harm every single day to the point most of them need stitches. I have tried to kill myself multiple times by overdoses, hanging and suffocating myself. I have had over eating, undereating and purging eating disorders, I abuse laxatives, make myself throw up, eat so much, cut my stomach because I feel so fat even though I am 2 stone underweight. I have beaten my boyfriend, random people in anger, smashed my phone and laptop, smashed up all my bedroom.

Understand what I mean by severe? Lol and thats just some things.

There is so many symptoms and they are so severe because of how unstable the person is. Best thing to help BPD is therapy, psychiatrist may use medications to help some symptoms but there is no specifc medication to help BPD symptoms because there is so many. Therapy like DBT are used, it has been proven to be the most successful in curing BPD. I’m in therapy for BPD and it helps me control my emotions a lot more.

Depends on the severity. If you are that worried you need to see your doctor, if they feel something is mentally wrong they will send you to a psychiatrist who is the only one who can diagnose borderline.

Answer by ?
First of all STOP doing tests online, they are in no way accurate and very misleading. Anyone can take one of those or read symptoms online and think they fit borderline because everyone has at least on “trait” of borderline, you need full blown symptoms that are so severe they are putting you and others in danger and interupting in your daily life.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is an emotional disorder which effects a person emotions (not mood) and it is not caused by chemical imbalances in the brain but how someone has processed their emotions over time usually due to childhood trauma. Symptoms include rapid mood swings due to emotional instability, thinking in only black and white, self harm, suicidal ideation and reoccurring attempts, impulsive and/or risky behaviour, fear of abandonment, eating disorders, unstable self image and sense of self, unstable relationships with family and friends, anxiety, depression, anger and aggression. Take me as an example, I have BPD and my emotions are everywhere. I will wake up feeling so happy bouncing off the walls for no reason and then the smallest thing like not being able to turn my computer on will make me so angry and when I say angry I mean so angry I will smash my things against walls and hit my boyfriend to get all my anger out and this will last around 2 hours until I break down crying for hours just because I couldn’t turn my computer on! I self harm almost every day, attempted suicide over 6 times, only think in black and white, have bad anger outbursts and switch from one emotion to the next in seconds. I also have struggled with eating disorders for 3 years and engage in risky behaviour such as drug and alcohol abuse as well as impulsively spending all my money and taking overdoses on a daily basis. I was even hospitalised for it.

Because it is not a chemical imbalance the best treatment is therapy for the person to learn techniques on how to control their emotions better. Some medications can help for symptoms such as depression and anxiety but it mainly therapy that is used to help people with BPD and it is curable through therapy. People under the age of 18 years old cannot be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder as a persons personality is changing up until late 20’s.

Those symptoms are only some symptoms. The main ones are self harm, suicidal ideation, fear of abandonment, poor sense of self and being emtionally unstable. If you are worried then see your doctor and explain to them but from what you have said it doesn’t sound like it but myself nor anyone else can diagnose you. If your doctor feels you have a mental health issue they will refer you over to a psychiatrist who is the only one who can diagnose this. Good luck xx

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

 

Teenage bodybuilders at risk for drug abuse

Filed under: adolescence drug abuse

Teenage boys who pump iron and pop steroids in hopes of improving their appearance may be at risk for binge drinking and drug abuse, a new study suggests. This kind of behaviour is really a type of eating disorder, said lead researcher Alison Field, …
Read more on Health24.com

 

LT Speaker to Address Substance Abuse and Adolescents

Filed under: adolescence drug abuse

6, will host speaker T. Celeste Napier, Ph.D for a presentation on substance abuse and the adolescent brain in collaboration with Robert Crown Health Education Center. Napier will discuss how the adolescent brain works to make decisions and how these …
Read more on Patch.com

 

Drug use among local teens remains hidden because it is rarely addressed

Filed under: adolescence drug abuse

Young people aged under 21 years form the biggest proportion of new drug users (one third of users or about 1,000 teens) according to the 2012 Central Registry of Drug Abuse (CRDA) survey , which compiles statistics reported by local hospitals, clinics …
Read more on South China Morning Post