 Hey, Psych2Goers! Welcome back to another video. Thank you all so much for the love and support you've given us. It enables us to present you with continued insight on everyday psychology. So, let's begin! Personality disorders come in many different forms and affect people differently. Borderline personality disorder is a specific condition that primarily affects self-perception and relationships. People with the condition typically experience intense emotional instability that deeply impacts everyday life. Please be advised that this is strictly for informative purposes. Do not self-diagnose and do not use this to diagnose or stigmatize others. Please speak with a healthcare provider or a mental health professional for medical or mental health advice in case you relate to any of the points mentioned. To better understand this condition, we'll be discussing 9 things about BPD that you need to know. 1. Fear of abandonment People with BPD often experience an intense sensitivity to abandonment. They may feel that the people around them are growing distant, regardless of the truth. They view small changes in behavior as a sign that their partner or friend is growing distant. They resort to clingy behavior in an effort to keep the person from leaving. 2. Persistent and wide mood swings BPD is exhausting. People with the condition often experience intense mood swings that can last hours to days. Moods vary from extreme happiness to sadness and irritability and may happen within the same day. These moods can be triggered rather easily as typically people with BPD are sensitive. In some cases they become violent, however in other cases they keep that intense anger bottled up, causing more psychological harm. 3. Paranoid thinking Has paranoia become your nemesis? BPD can cause a person to become paranoid and may perhaps lose contact with reality for small periods of time. They feel that people are trying to work against them and fear others' intentions. They may act out on these hunches and cut contact with others to protect themselves. High levels of stress may cause someone to disassociate with themselves and in more severe cases can cause a psychotic episode. 4. Emptiness Have you ever felt that your life lacks meaning? Most people at some point in life experience such an emotion due to difficult times. People with BPD, however, may feel chronically empty all the time. They feel stuck in a dark tunnel of emotional numbness or despair. These are difficult feelings and they may not know how to handle them. In some cases they may struggle with self-image and accepting who they are. This, along with fears of abandonment and mood swings, may cause a person to feel empty. This feeling can be dangerous and contributes to other problems such as addiction. 5. Impulsivity Are spending sprees on unnecessary items and binge eating a part of your routine? Do others lament your extra recklessness? BPD can also cause a person to experience intense happiness. So they may indulge in a range of impulsive activities. In this, BPD parallels bipolar disorder and is often misdiagnosed as such. When these behaviors occur only during phases of elevated mood, they may be signs of a mood disorder not borderline personality disorder. 6. Splitting Are you familiar with the black and white thinking phenomenon? It's the act of being only able to think at the extremes with no regard to a middle ground. Splitting is another term for black and white thinking. People with BPD flip-flop from one extreme emotion to another. For instance, someone may feel an intense love and admiration for a person in their life at one moment, yet if they feel that the person wronged them, those warm, fuzzy feelings may turn into bitter hatred and resentment. This makes the relationships highly unstable. Even minute inconveniences and misunderstandings can flare these extreme emotions. 7. Trust issues Do you over-analyze situations and feel you're being slighted in every situation? People with BPD do so despite the thoughts being completely irrational. They may find it hard to trust others for no reason at all. They feel that they understand others' intentions, but they're always way off. They may also think that another person is cruel to them over a small inconvenience. 8. Risk factors for development can be environmental and or inherited. Developing BPD depends on a few different variables. In some cases, genetics is responsible if a relative has the disorder. In other cases, people who experience highly traumatic events may develop the disorder. Experiences such as separation from someone at a young age to childhood abuse and violence are also influences. Generally, a person begins to show signs of BPD in early adulthood. 9. Change in interest and values How often do you feel at odds with yourself? Does it also permeate to those around you? A person with BPD may have polarizing views on themselves and others. Similar to splitting, they may feel night and day differences on various topics, especially relating to self. For instance, a person may feel that they have no value to anyone at one moment, but feel the opposite in another. Their interests, values and relationships are very unstable and lack consistency. BPD is a complex and stigmatized condition. It's important to know that people struggling with BPD are not necessarily bad people. Rather, they're people in need of support. BPD comes with a lot of emotional impulsivity and instability, but it's important to reach out if you feel that you're struggling. What are your thoughts about how the condition affects people? Let us know in the comments below. 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