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Walking on Eggshells
Teens With Borderline Personality Disorder
By Gwen Morrison
Anderson has seen many of the symptoms in her child that are listed as possible signs of BPD. "She has incredible mood swings, and her perception of people is often clouded – no gray areas, just very black and white," she says. "It is often difficult to watch and very hard to understand as a parent."
Anderson has felt the wrath of her daughter's rages when she was in her early teens. After witnessing destructive behavior brought on by intense negative feelings, the Andersons decided to see a psychologist. "She is on medication and in therapy, and it does help, but it is often exhausting – she is so unpredictable," says Anderson. "The worst part has to be the social arena. It breaks my heart to see her push people away. Her personal relationships are virtually non-existent, and the ones that she does choose end up being negative influences. She seems to be drawn to the wrong people which feeds into the self-destructive attitudes."
Diane Roberts Stoler, health psychologist from Georgetown, Mass., says that with proper therapy the prognosis for individuals with BPD can be good to excellent. "Therapy is needed two to four times per week for five years or more," she says. "It entails reconstructive psycho dynamic therapy."
Stoler says the symptoms for BPD are similarly related to infancy. "Clingy behavior, problems with setting limits and boundaries, acting out, feelings of loathing and emptiness, developmentally arrested at age 2; therefore, behavior is similar to that of a 2-year-old with temper tantrums and seeing the world as black and white," she says.
There is so much to be learned about BPD that even the mental health community is still unsure of many aspects of the disorder. The causes are unclear. NAMI reports that the disorder appears to be related to depressive illness and neurological and attention deficit disorders. There are also biological factors that are being considered which may cause mood instability resulting in increased relational issues.
Because teenagers are often plagued to a certain extent with many of the symptoms listed, it is difficult to diagnose BPD in young teens. Some doctors hesitate to give a diagnosis until the late teens to early 20s.
BPD rarely travels alone. It most often exists with other psychological disorders such as: