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Borderline Personality Disorder
What it is, how to recognize it, and its implications for personal relationships
If you’re like me, you’ll not have heard of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) before. While many of us know about more widely publicized cognitive impairments such as Attention Deficit Disorder, bipolar illness, schizophrenia, and the autism spectrum, BPD is not so well-known. Moreover, as BPD is in some ways an amplification of characteristics most of us have to a lesser degree, it’s easy to miss the signs. I found this out for myself, as I unknowingly entered into an intimate relationship with a person who suffers from BPD. For the sake of this article, I’ll anonymize her and refer to her as Marianne.
According to DSM-5 (the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), BPD will be diagnosed if a person presents with at least five of nine recognized symptoms. It’s a complex disorder, so that some individuals will exhibit different symptoms at different times in their lives. But most people who suffer from BPD will tend to present the same collection of symptoms over an extended period. Moreover, these symptoms will tend to reinforce each other. As the symptoms can be considered amplifications of ordinary human traits, not only is it easy for BPD to go undiagnosed but people with BPD can easily remain in a state of…
