What is Borderline Personality Disorder?
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a disturbance of certain brain functions that causes four types of behavioral disturbances: poorly regulated and excessive emotional responses, harmful impulsive actions, distorted perceptions and impaired reasoning, and marked disturbed relationships.
The full spectrum of symptoms of borderline personality disorder typically first appears in the teenage years and early twenties. Although some children with significant behavioral disturbances may develop readily diagnosable borderline disorder as they get older, it is very difficult to make the diagnosis in children.
Borderline personality disorder affects how a child feels about himself, how he relates to others and how he behaves. When a child has BPD, he often has an insecure sense of who he is. That is, his self-image or sense of self often rapidly changes. He may view himself as evil or bad, and sometimes may feel as if he doesn’t exist at all. An unstable self-image often leads to frequent changes in jobs, friendships, goals, and values.
The child’s relationships are usually in turmoil. He will often experience a love-hate relationship with others. He may idealize someone one moment and then abruptly and dramatically shift to fury and hate over perceived slights or even minor misunderstandings. This is because people with the disorder have difficulty accepting gray areas. Things are either black or white.
Treatment for borderline personality disorder has improved in recent years with the adoption of techniques specifically aimed at people with this disorder. Treatment may include psychotherapy and medications. Psychotherapy allows the child to talk about both present difficulties and past experiences in the presence of an empathetic, accepting, and non-judgmental therapist. The therapy needs to be structured, consistent, and regular, with the patient encouraged to talk about his or her feelings rather than to discharge them in his or her usual self-defeating ways.
Another key component to the treatment plan is to include the home and school environments in the treatment plan. IPP provides parent and teacher training, which is beneficial to the caregiver and educator when working with a child with a personality disorder.
By MaryEllen Smith Tavares
