# Borderline personality disorder
Opinion: Borderline Personality Disorder And Relationships
A relationship with someone with Borderline Personality Disorder is usually very rocky, with many ups and downs. Long-term relationships and even marriages are possible with patience, effort, and hard work. More commonly, someone with BPD has more frequent short-term relationships. Before we get deeper into what a relationship may feel like with someone with Borderline Personality Disorder, I will provide a basic understanding of this mental illness.
Symptoms and Treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder
sad woman (Affiliate links benefit author if a purchase is made)George Hodan. Like all personality disorders, Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) exists on a continuum, from mild to severe. It affects women more than men and about two percent of the U.S. population. BPD is usually diagnosed in young adulthood when there has been a pattern of impulsivity and instability in relationships, self-image, and emotions. They may use alcohol, food, drugs, or other addiction to try to self-medicate their pain, but it only exacerbates it. To diagnose BPD, at least five of the following symptoms must be enduring and present in a variety of areas:
Opinion: When Personality Disorders Collide - Depp vs. Heard
I think you’d have to live in a remote place with no TV or internet access to not know that there’s been a heck of an explosion on Court TV involving Amber Heard and Johnny Depp. Both are claiming abuse, and while I won’t take a stand either way (I’ll allow the jury to decide the outcome), what I do want to address is the diagnosis of Histrionic Personality Disorder, since it was alleged that Ms. Heard has this diagnosis.
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The Anguish and Hope for Loved Ones of People with Borderline Personality Disorder
Caring about someone with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) tosses you on a roller coaster ride from being loved and lauded to abandoned and bashed. Being a borderline (having BPD) is no picnic, either. You live in unbearable psychic pain most of the time and in severe cases on the border between reality and psychosis. Your illness distorts your perceptions causing antagonistic behavior and making the world a perilous place. The pain and terror of abandonment and feeling unwanted can be so great that suicide feels like a better choice.