 What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. And if you are new here, my channel is all about mental health. I provide solutions to help you work on your mental health. And today, which you probably already gathered, we're going to be talking about borderline personality disorder. This is a mental illness that really fascinates me. It's very interesting. And a lot of people struggle with it. And a lot of people don't even realize they struggle with it. As some of you know who have followed my channel, you know that I am a drug addict and alcoholic in recovery. Some of you also know that I am the son of an alcoholic mother. Now, when it comes down to why borderline personality disorder happens, scientists believe that there are some genetic components, but a lot of them are environmental components. So what I've noticed through my own experience as well as my experience working with people with mental health issues is that a lot of people who have parents who are drug addicts or alcoholics, a lot of them struggle with borderline personality disorder. This is also very common with anybody who experienced trauma as a child. Basically, a lot of people with poor childhood environments can struggle with borderline personality disorder. Now, now let's talk about what borderline personality disorder is. When I first heard about borderline personality disorder, I think the name of it is a little like eh, because when you hear it, you think that it's some kind of like multiple personality disorder, which it definitely is not. So I'm going to go through the symptoms of it, but in a nutshell, a lot of people with borderline personality disorder, they struggle a lot with two major things. Emotional regulation, which means their emotions bounce all over the place, as well as a sense of self, a sense of who they are. Okay. And as we go through these symptoms, you'll start to recognize what I'm talking about. So something that I'm kind of excited about is I finally got myself a copy of the DSM. This book right here, this is the diagnostic and statistical manual, and it's for mental health disorders. So this is what mental health professionals use to diagnose you with different disorders. So by the way, I'm going to give you some resources at the end of this video, but this video and none of the videos I do, this is not for you to diagnose yourself. But if you recognize some of these symptoms, I will have resources at the end of this video, so you can potentially work towards some solutions and have some better health. All right. So let's dive into this. Okay. So for borderline personality disorder, it says it's a pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image and effects, and marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five or more of the following. So in order to be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, you have to meet at least five of these symptoms. Okay. A lot of the different disorders, you have to meet a certain amount for them to fully diagnose you. But again, this is something that you need to do with a mental health professional and not a YouTube video. Okay. So symptom number one, frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. So people with borderline personality disorder, they have a lot of abandonment issues. So for example, when I talk about having an alcoholic mom, there was a lot of fear of abandonment that she was going to leave me, especially because when I was younger, she sent me off to my dad's. It stuck with me. This fear of abandonment stuck with me throughout my adulthood. And by the way, in case I didn't clarify, I have never been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. But when I found out about this disorder, I saw that I used to have a lot of the symptoms. So anyways, I'm sorry for this quick break in the symptoms, but I want to give hope to anybody out there who struggles with borderline personality disorder that I have had a lot of the symptoms and I've managed to work through them and overcome them. Okay. So symptom number two, a pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation. So I'm going to do another more dedicated video to this, but when we're talking about emotional regulation, okay, there's extremes. Think of your brain working in two different modes, attraction and aversion. Come close, go away. Okay. So what this is talking about is people with borderline personality disorder, they have a lot of what's called black and white thinking. Okay. They either love you, they love you, you're amazing, or they hate you and get the heck away from me. So a lot of people with borderline personality disorder, they struggle with maintaining relationships because there's a lot of push, pull, push, pull, push, pull. Okay. So symptom number three, identity disturbance, markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self. So a lot of people with borderline personality disorder, they have a difficult time knowing who they actually are, like who am I, like discovering themselves. Like a lot of you watching this video, if you don't struggle with BPD, like you have a pretty good idea of who you are, but people with BPD, they bounce around quite a bit. All right. Four, impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging. Okay. So the examples it gives, spending money, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating. So they do a lot of risky behaviors. All right. Five, recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures or threats or self mutilating behavior. So a lot of people date people with borderline personality disorders. And these are the people who are, I'm going to do more videos on this, but it's very difficult to be in a relationship with someone who has BPD. It's not impossible as long as you understand what this mental illness is, but people with BPD, they'll often bounce back and forth between loving you and hating you. And then also they'll have these kind of suicidal threats. And then it gets into a really bad situation because then you, as the other partner in the relationship, you can feel like you're being held hostage because they have these threats of either killing themselves or harming themselves. All right. Six, effective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood. Okay. The example it gives intense episodic dysphoria, irritability or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days. A lot of people with BPD, they can experience like a variety of different kind of mood swings. All right. Symptom number seven, chronic feelings of emptiness. This kind of relates to that, that issue of not really having a sense of self. Okay. That feeling of emptiness. Who am I? Sometimes BPD is misdiagnosed as like depression. One of the symptoms of depression can be emptiness or numbness. Okay. Again, this is why you need to seek the help of a professional to get properly diagnosed. All right. Symptom number eight, inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger. Again, this goes back to emotional regulation. Okay. People with BPD can get furious. Like most people get kind of like, oh, you didn't put the dishes away and get kind of angry or upset with you. People with BPD, they can fly off the handle like that. All right. And the last symptom is symptom number nine, transient, stress related, paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms. Okay. So people with BPD, they can also have a lot of disassociation. And this is another reason why sometimes BPD is misdiagnosed as something else. There's a lot of other mental disorders, especially in the DSM that talk about disassociation. So this is why it's important to seek a mental health professional to get properly diagnosed. All right. So these are the symptoms of BPD. So my recommendation, if you can relate to these symptoms or if you know somebody who sounds like they fall into the realm of these symptoms. Okay. Like please, first off, please share this video with them because acknowledging your symptoms of mental illness is liberating. It's this, this kind of sense of, ah, like once you get diagnosed with something, once you kind of figure it out, it will leave some of the stress. You start to realize like, I'm not this crazy or awful person. I have some kind of mental illness. And the good thing about illnesses is that they can be treated. Okay. So if you are struggling with BPD, the first recommendation and best recommendation I can give you is seek a therapist. Okay. A qualified therapist. They use this exact same thing, the DSM. Okay. So if you don't have access to a therapist in your area or if you have insurance issues or even with your insurance, therapists are expensive, go ahead and check out the description down below. I do some work with an online therapy program. It's very inexpensive. They actually have a sliding scale too. So if you don't make that much money, it'll be a little bit cheaper with you. Okay. But that you have access to hundreds and hundreds of different therapists and they're available pretty much whenever you need them. Okay. So if you feel like you're struggling with BPD or any other symptoms of mental illness and you need help, make sure you click on that link below. Full transparency. Yes, it is an affiliate link. So basically they hooked me up with this to present it to my audience. And if you go through therapy through them, it also helps support the channel. Not a bad deal at all. All right, but I want you all to leave comments down below if you struggle with BPD or you think you might or if you have any suggestions on topics about BPD that you want me to kind of dive deeper into, please leave them down in the comments below. I am actually going to do this. I'm going to link up in the info card another channel I found today while researching BPD. This young woman, she struggles with BPD and her whole channel is about BPD. So I highly recommend that you go check it out. Also, if you happen to talk to her, I hit her up on Instagram because I'm trying to get her as a guest on my channel to talk a little bit more about BPD. All right. But anyways, I hope this video helps some of you out. And if it did, please give me a thumbs up. And if you are new here, make sure you click that little round subscribe button because I'm always making videos to help you out with your mental and emotional well-being. All right. If you want to check out some other videos on this channel, click or tap on one of those thumbnails. But as always, thanks so much for watching. I'll see you next time.