Borderline

Personality
Disoder
EXPLAINED
It is estimated that at least 1 in every 100 people have BPD
Diagnosis is based on the following
An enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations
of the individual's culture, manifested in two (or more) of the following areas:

Cognition (i.e. ways of perceiving and interpreting self,

other people, and events)

Affectivity (i.e. the range, intensity, lability, and

appropriateness of emotional response)

Interpersonal functioning (i.e. impulse control)

Misdiagnoses
for BPD is
incredibly
common
People with BPD face:
Feeling a desperate and urgent need to avoid
1
being abandoned by other people - even if the
abandonment is only imagined.

Having intense and unstable relationships,

2
repeatedly idealizing people, then intensely
disliking or devaluing them, in relatively short
intervals.

A chronic feeling of emptiness uncertainty of

3
self - what psychiatrists call an ‘unstable self-
image’.
Think of these factors,
then consider how they might
affect a relationship between
a health professional and a
person with BPD.
What is the
cause of BPD?
A combination of biological
factors and early-life experiences
BPD is currently
under-recognized,
and the availability
of specific services
is limited.
If you know or have known
someone with BPD,
you might struggle to find
empathy towards them.

It’s important not to blame

You might have good
the person in such
reason - they might have
situations.
hurt you.

It’s not their fault, after all.

References
Gunderson, J., Herpertz, S., Skodol, A. et al. Borderline personality disorder. Nat Rev Dis Primers 4,
18029 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrdp.2018.29

Rebecca Matson, Sarah Kriakous & May Stinson (2021) The Experiences of Women with a Diagnosis
of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) Using Sensory Modulation Approaches in an Inpatient Mental
Health Rehabilitation Setting, Occupational Therapy in Mental Health, 37:4, 311-331,
https://doi.org/10.1080/0164212X.2021.1933674