What is Borderline Personality Disorder?

Useful to: Parent Centers for sharing with families and individuals affected by borderline personality disorder.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a diagnosis that has historically been difficult to understand. The symptoms associated with it are a painful mix of emotional turmoil, unstable relationships, and self-destructive behavior, including suicide attempts. This article from the Child Mind Institute discusses the following:

• What is borderline personality disorder?
• Emotional dysregulation (difficulty in regulating and modulating emotions, leading to destabilized relationships)
• Self-destructive behavior (e.g., cutting and other self-injury)
• Criteria for diagnosing borderline personality disorder
• Diagnosing teenagers
• Why early diagnosis is crucial
• Treatment (focus on dialectical behavioral therapy, or DBT)

Accompanying articles explore self-injurious behavior in more depth, as well as dialectical behavioral therapy.

Access the article on Borderline Personality Disorder at:
https://childmind.org/article/borderline-personality-disorder/