Part 1: 7 Challenges of Borderline Personality Disorder

Treating and helping a loved one with BPD symptoms requires internal strength, patience, and knowledge. This article will highlight 7 challenging characteristics of individuals with BPD. Next week’s article will focus on ways to cope with these 7 characteristics as a friend or family member.

One of my very first clients out of graduate school was a young adolescent who fit the description of BPD 100%. The only reason I could not apply the diagnosis was because she was only 14 years of age. With the collision of adolescent hormones and pressuring peer and school experiences, diagnosis her with BPD may have come across as negligent. So I refrained from diagnosing her. Over the course of 4.5 years I found myself in multiple positions as a mental health professional in school, residential, and hospital settings. During this time I treated, evaluated, supervised, and referred numerous teens fitting the BPD criteria. It wasn’t until 2014 that I met up again with my very first client at the age of 17.5yrs old. She had gotten much worse. Her MO (modus operandi) was to threaten suicide or other types of self-harm, cut herself and gloat among friends about “how deep it was,” and throw tantrums that resulted in multiple trips to the hospital by the police.
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