borderlinebutterfly.com
Traits.
BPD can be a difficult diagnosis because of similarities to other conditions and comorbidity. Five or more of these symptoms may be present. These nine traits used to diagnose borderline personality disorder are common to other disorders, and you should seek professional guidance (if accessible) if you are concerned about a diagnosis.
One – Fear of abandonment.
| People with BPD are often terrified of being abandoned or left alone. Even something as innocuous as a loved one arriving home late from work or going away for the weekend may trigger intense fear. This can prompt frantic efforts to keep the other person close. You may beg, cling, start fights, track your loved one’s movements, or even physically block the person from leaving. Unfortunately, this behavior tends to have the opposite effect—driving others away. • HELPGUIDE.ORG |
| Efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment, such as rapidly initiating intimate (physical or emotional) relationships or cutting off communication with someone in anticipation of being abandoned. • NIMH |
| An intense fear of abandonment, even going to extreme measures to avoid real or imagined separation or rejection. • MAYO CLINIC |
| Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment by friends and family. • NAMI |
Two – Unstable relationships.
| Unstable relationships. People with BPD tend to have relationships that are intense and short-lived. You may fall in love quickly, believing that each new person is the one who will make you feel whole, only to be quickly disappointed. Your relationships either seem perfect or horrible, without any middle ground. Your lovers, friends, or family members may feel like they have emotional whiplash as a result of your rapid swings from idealization to devaluation, anger, and hate. • HELPGUIDE.ORG |
| A pattern of intense and unstable relationships with family, friends, and loved ones, often swinging from extreme closeness and love (idealization) to extreme dislike or anger (devaluation). • NIMH |
| A pattern of unstable intense relationships, such as idealizing someone one moment and then suddenly believing the person doesn’t care enough or is cruel. • MAYO CLINIC |
| Unstable personal relationships that alternate between idealization (“I’m so in love!”) and devaluation (“I hate her”). This is also sometimes known as “splitting.” • NAMI |
Three – Unclear or shifting self-image.
| When you have BPD, your sense of self is typically unstable. Sometimes you may feel good about yourself, but other times you hate yourself, or even view yourself as evil. You probably don’t have a clear idea of who you are or what you want in life. As a result, you may frequently change jobs, friends, lovers, religion, values, goals, or even sexual identity. • HELPGUIDE.ORG |
| Distorted and unstable self-image or sense of self. • NIMH |
| Rapid changes in self-identity and self-image that include shifting goals and values, and seeing yourself as bad or as if you don’t exist at all. • MAYO CLINIC |
| Distorted and unstable self-image, which affects moods, values, opinions, goals and relationships. • NAMI |
Four – Impulsive, self-destructive behaviors.
| If you have BPD, you may engage in harmful, sensation-seeking behaviors, especially when you’re upset. You may impulsively spend money you can’t afford, binge eat, drive recklessly, shoplift, engage in risky sex, or overdo it with drugs or alcohol. These risky behaviors may help you feel better in the moment, but they hurt you and those around you over the long-term. • HELPGUIDE.ORG |
| Impulsive and often dangerous behaviors, such as spending sprees, unsafe sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, and binge eating. • NIMH |
| Impulsive and risky behavior, such as gambling, reckless driving, unsafe sex, spending sprees, binge eating or drug abuse, or sabotaging success by suddenly quitting a good job or ending a positive relationship. • MAYO CLINIC |
| Impulsive behaviors that can have dangerous outcomes, such as excessive spending, unsafe sex, substance abuse or reckless driving. • NAMI |
Five – Self-harm.
| Suicidal behavior and deliberate self-harm is common in people with BPD. Suicidal behavior includes thinking about suicide, making suicidal gestures or threats, or actually carrying out a suicide attempt. Self-harm encompasses all other attempts to hurt yourself without suicidal intent. Common forms of self-harm include cutting and burning. • HELPGUIDE.ORG |
| Self-harming behavior, such as cutting. Recurring thoughts of suicidal behaviors or threats. • NIMH |
| Suicidal threats or behavior or self-injury, often in response to fear of separation or rejection. • MAYO CLINIC |
| Self-harming behavior including suicidal threats or attempts. • NAMI |
Six – Extreme emotional swings.
| Unstable emotions and moods are common with BPD. One moment, you may feel happy, and the next, despondent. Little things that other people brush off can send you into an emotional tailspin. These mood swings are intense, but they tend to pass fairly quickly (unlike the emotional swings of depression or bipolar disorder), usually lasting just a few minutes or hours. • HELPGUIDE.ORG |
| Intense and highly changeable moods, with each episode lasting from a few hours to a few days. • NIMH |
| Wide mood swings lasting from a few hours to a few days, which can include intense happiness, irritability, shame or anxiety. • MAYO CLINIC |
| Periods of intense depressed mood, irritability or anxiety lasting a few hours to a few days. • NAMI |
Seven – Chronic feelings of emptiness.
| People with BPD often talk about feeling empty, as if there’s a hole or a void inside them. At the extreme, you may feel as if you’re “nothing” or “nobody.” This feeling is uncomfortable, so you may try to fill the void with things like drugs, food, or sex. But nothing feels truly satisfying. • HELPGUIDE.ORG |
| Chronic feelings of emptiness. • NIMH |
| Ongoing feelings of emptiness. • MAYO CLINIC |
| Chronic feelings of boredom or emptiness. • NAMI |
Eight – Explosive anger.
| If you have BPD, you may struggle with intense anger and a short temper. You may also have trouble controlling yourself once the fuse is lit—yelling, throwing things, or becoming completely consumed by rage. It’s important to note that this anger isn’t always directed outwards. You may spend a lot of time feeling angry at yourself. • HELPGUIDE.ORG |
| Inappropriate, intense anger or problems controlling anger. • NIMH |
| Inappropriate, intense anger, such as frequently losing your temper, being sarcastic or bitter, or having physical fights. • MAYO CLINIC |
| Inappropriate, intense or uncontrollable anger—often followed by shame and guilt. • NAMI |
Nine – Feeling out of touch with reality.
| People with BPD often struggle with paranoia or suspicious thoughts about others’ motives. When under stress, you may even lose touch with reality—an experience known as dissociation. You may feel foggy, spaced out, or as if you’re outside your own body. • HELPGUIDE.ORG |
| Difficulty trusting, which is sometimes accompanied by irrational fear of other people’s intentions. Feelings of dissociation, such as feeling cut off from oneself, seeing oneself from outside one’s body, or feelings of unreality. • NIMH |
| Periods of stress-related paranoia and loss of contact with reality, lasting from a few minutes to a few hours. • MAYO CLINIC |
| Dissociative feelings—disconnecting from your thoughts or sense of identity or “out of body” type of feelings—and stress-related paranoid thoughts. • NAMI |
Due to the hundreds of possible combinations of these traits, there are many differences between sufferers. One researcher suggested four subtypes — impulsive, discouraged (quiet), self-destructive, and petulant (angry). Others use different terms for three subtypes — core BPD, extrovert/externalizing, and schizotypal/paranoid. However, there is no presumption that a person will suffer the symptoms of only one subtype.
BPD traits can be managed. All subtypes of borderline personality disorders are treatable. If professional help is accessible to you, please seek care that best helps with the traits you experience. Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) is a type of cognitive therapy that may help change negative thinking patterns. Free workbooks available online.
DBT Skills Workbook (PDF)
Maximizing Mindfulness (PDF)
helpguide | nimh | mayoclinic | nami
| Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness |
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I created vector art from my own photograph, and recolored the wings to mimic a bilateral gynandromorph eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly.
They display male and female traits, including the striking difference in wing coloration. This intersex mosaic occurs only once in 100,000 butterflies in nature.
I chose this because it is a beautiful representation of an individual unencumbered by the demands of normal. We are divergent, and we are extraordinary.
The pin is 1.5 in. wide and 0.85 in. high. The backing card will include the traits of borderline personality disorder and a link to learn more.
While a bilateral gynandromorph human embryo could not survive, it is estimated that 1 in 100 humans are born intersex. I absolutely support the wearing of this pin to promote intersex awareness as well as BPD awareness.
shantell evelyn 