Borderline Personality Disorder
Classification: Personality disorders
Things You Might Notice
Noticeably severe mood swings
Evidence or threats of self-injury
Fear of being left alone for any period
Aggressive or significantly irritable
behavior
Over-sharing personal details, especially
with people they don't know well
Threats of suicide or suicide attempts
Diagnostic Criteria
A pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image. and affects as well as
impulsivity.
Symptoms begin by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by 5 (or
more) of the following:
Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment
A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating
between idealization and devaluation
Identity distrubance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self
Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially damaging
Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior
Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood
Chronic feelings of emptiness
Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger
Transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms