What is BPD?

The Official DSM-5-TR Categorical Criteria for BPD:

Borderline Personality Disorder is defined by “a pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by meeting FIVE or more of the following criteria:

  1. Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment

  2. A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation

  3. Identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self 

  4. Impulsivity in at least 2 areas that are potentially self-damaging, for example, spending, substance abuse, reckless driving, sex, or binge eating 

  5. Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior 

  6. Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood, for example, intense episodic dysphoria, anxiety, or irritability, usually lasting a few hours and rarely more than a few days 

  7. Chronic feelings of emptiness

  8. Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger, for example, frequent displays of temper, constant anger, or recurrent physical fights

  9. Transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms.”

source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK430883/

Liz’s Analysis and Explanation of BPD: