Borderline Personality Disorder Test
People close to this individual frequently express concerns about being left behind or abandoned.
Episodes of intense anger or anxiety can persist for hours or even days in this person's experience.
When upset, this individual tends to act on impulse without much forethought.
Long-term goals and career plans often shift unexpectedly for this person.
This individual remains fiercely loyal to anyone who has ever been a close part of their life.
At times, this person openly describes feeling fundamentally bad or unworthy.
Hostility or aggression can surface in this individual's behavior.
When fearing a relationship might end, this person may take desperate measures to prevent it.
This individual has expressed feelings of being misunderstood or unfairly treated by others.
Occasionally, this person's anger feels overwhelming and difficult to manage.
There have been instances where this individual has threatened self-harm or suicide.
This person consistently presents the same core personality, no matter who they interact with.
Episodes involving paranoid thoughts or a disconnect from reality sometimes occur for this individual.
Friends or partners are often placed on a pedestal one moment and criticized harshly the next by this person.
This individual sometimes reports feeling an internal emptiness or void.
Relationships in this person's life tend to be passionate but unstable and unpredictable.
Their sense of self appears to fluctuate dramatically and frequently.
Reckless behaviors related to sex, shopping, substance use, driving, or eating are common during certain episodes for this person.
This individual often questions whether those close to them genuinely care about their well-being.
Mood swings can range from calm states to high irritability or anxiety in this person's daily life.
20 questions remaining
What You Should Know
- Borderline personality disorder usually starts in the teenage years or early adulthood, but it can show up later in life. It affects 1 to 2 percent of adults in the U.S., but some estimates say it may be at least twice as common. Some people think that up to 10% of people with the condition kill themselves.
- We don't know everything about what causes BPD, but it seems to have a strong genetic link. People with a first-degree relative who has it are five times more likely to have it.
- People who were abused or abandoned as children or who say they were sexually abused are more likely to develop BPD. This suggests that life events may play a role in its development. Such experiences may compel children to incessantly alter their strategies to cope with the unpredictability of the adults in their lives, fostering distrust in those and future relationships.
- For a long time, people thought that BPD was much more common in women than in men. However, new research shows that the number of men and women with the disorder may be much closer to even.
- People with BPD want close friendships and romance, so they try to win over new people by giving them a lot of attention and energy. However, their high relationship insecurity often drives those people away.
- Being in a relationship with someone who has BPD can be full of good times and bad times, like anger, jealousy, or stalking. People who are very afraid of being left alone may be very alert for any sign of rejection or pulling away, such as being late for a date or talking to someone they see as competition for their attention.
Turn It Up a Notch
Are you labeling? Only a trained professional can make a diagnosis like BPD. Think about the pain you could cause someone before you call them mentally ill.
Take care of yourself. People can be too pushy at the beginning of a relationship or too sensitive to signs of rejection, even if they don't have BPD. You don't have to stay in touch with someone if they make you feel bad.
Think about going to therapy. A professional could help you deal with the pain if someone close to you hurt you, whether it was recently or a long time ago.
