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Borderline personality disorder

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• More information on borderline personality disorder

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious mental illness. It causes a person's moods, interpersonal relationships, self-image, and behavior to be unstable. This hurts family and work life, long-term planning, and the person's sense of self-identity. BPD is more common than both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, affecting 2 percent of adults, mostly young women.

A person with BPD may experience intense times of anger, depression, and anxiety that may last only hours, or, at most, a day. A person with BPD may also be aggressive, hurt herself, and abuse drugs or alcohol. She may often change long-term goals, career plans, jobs, friendships, gender identity, and values. Sometimes people with BPD view themselves as fundamentally bad, or unworthy. They may feel unfairly misunderstood or mistreated, bored, empty, and have little idea who they are.

People with BPD are often impulsive. They may spend too much money, binge eat, and have risky sex. BPD often occurs together with other mental health illnesses, including bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, and other personality disorders.

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Treatment

Treatments for BPD have improved in recent years. Medication and/or therapy are at least somewhat effective for many patients.

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More information on borderline personality disorder

Explore other publications and websites

• Borderline Personality Disorder — This publication provides information about the characteristics and treatment of borderline personality disorder.
  http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/bpd.cfm
• Borderline Personality Disorder (Copyright © American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy) — This fact sheet provides information about the symptoms, causes, effects, and treatment of borderline personality disorder. It links to some helpful resources and organizations with more information about this disorder.
  http://www.aamft.org/imis15/Content/Consumer_Updates/Borderline_Personality_Disorder.aspx
• Mental Health Services Locator — This website will help you locate mental health treatment facilities and support services in your state.
  http://store.samhsa.gov/mhlocator
• Personality Disorders Screening Test (Copyright © NYU Langone Medical Center) — This is a screening test that is designed to give a preliminary indication of certain personality traits that might be associated with a personality disorder.
  http://psych.med.nyu.edu/patient-care/personality-disorders-screening-test
• What Is Borderline Personality Disorder (Copyright © New York Online Access to Health) — This website provides links to online publications of other organizations with in depth information about borderline personality disorder.
  http://www.noah-health.org/en/mental/disorders/border.html

Connect with other organizations

• American Psychological Association
  http://apa.org/
• American Psychological Association
  http://www.apa.org/
• International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation
  http://www.isst-d.org/
• Mental Health America
  http://www.nmha.org/
• National Alliance on Mental Illness
  http://www.nami.org/
• National Institute of Mental Health Information Center, NIH
  http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/index.cfm

Content last updated March 29, 2010.

Resources last updated March 29, 2010.

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