Borderline Personality Disorder Research Paper
Shannon Allen
Melissa Patton, MA, HS-BCP
Abnormal Psychology 25644
March 8, 2013

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT OF BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER

Abstract: This paper will discuss the causes and psychological impact of borderline personality disorder. It will also talk about how to treat those impacted by borderline personality disorder.

Introduction: This article discusses the significance of psychotherapy options in treating borderline personality disorder (BPD). Borderline personality is a disorder with a variety of symptoms that can be briefly summarized as instability in mood, thinking, behavior, personal relations, and self-image. Psychotherapy options include cognitive
Relationships and the person’s emotion may often be characterized as being shallow.
A person with this disorder will also often exhibit impulsive behaviors and have a majority of the following symptoms: * Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment * A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation * Identity disturbance, such as a significant and persistent unstable self-image or sense of self * Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating) * Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior * Emotional instability due to significant reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphonia, irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days) * Chronic feelings of emptiness * Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights) * Transient, stress-related paranoid thoughts or severe dissociative symptoms

While about 75% of those diagnosed with BPD are women, it is believed there are many more men with it who have not been diagnosed properly (Gershon, 2007)
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