Symptoms of BPD

I am writing the criteria for diagnosing someone with borderline personality disorder.  Often people who have BPD can recognize these symptoms and diagnose themselves as having the disorder.  Many people who do not have BPD can have some of these symptoms, so if you recognize a few (say five or less) as symptoms you have, that does not mean that you have BPD.  People with BPD often have most if not all of these symptoms.  If you recognize having most of all of these symptoms, it is likely that you are suffering from BPD.   DSM-IV-TR Criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder  (with my comments in parentheses) >  Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abondonment.  (For instance, trying to make yur boyfriend or girlfriend stay with you so that you are not left alone.) >  A patern of intense and unstble interpersonal relationships characterized by alteration between extremes of idealation and devaluation.  (You either love people or you hate them, no in between) >  Identity disturbance: markedly and persistent unstable self-image or sense of self.  (Who you feel you are, and the things that you identify with, are not well established or keep changing) >  Impulsivity in at least two areas that is potentially self-damaging.  (You tend to do things impulsively without much thought or planning.) >  Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior.  (It is very common for persons with BPD to cut themselves during times of stress.  It is also common for them to have thoughts of suicide.) >  Affective instability due to marked reactive of mood.  (This basically means that you are very sensitive, and that your mood reacts very strongly to the good and bad things that happen in daily life.) >  Chronic feelings of emptiness  (I think this one is pretty clear.) >  Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger.  (Again, pretty clear.) >  Transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe disaciative symptoms.  (You may temporarily 'lose it' mentally at times of severe psychological stress.  You may beleive strange delusional or paranoid thoughts.  You may also get strange feelings that your self is not attached to your body.) If you have most of these symptoms, then you should educate yourself about BPD.  There are many good books and web sites on BPD.  You should also be seeing a therapist who specializes in treating people with BPD.  An excellent type of therapy for persons with BPD is called Dialectical Behavior Therapy, or DPT.  You should talk to your therapist about whether a DBT program would be good for you.  Finally, your doctor or psychiatrist may perscribe medication that may help you.  You need to realize, though, that medication only address the symptoms of BPT, whereas therapy is generally required to really get better.