A mental health condition characterized by instability in emotions, self-image, behavior, and relationships. People with BPD often struggle with impulsivity, mood swings, fear of abandonment, and a pattern of intense but unstable relationships.
A defense mechanism commonly seen in BPD where people or situations are viewed in extreme "all-good" or "all-bad" terms, with little room for nuance. It contributes to the intense emotional swings and relationship difficulties typical of the disorder.
**Fear of Abandonment**
A central feature of BPD, where individuals experience an intense fear of being abandoned or rejected by others, often leading to frantic efforts to avoid perceived or real abandonment.
**Emotional Dysregulation**
The core feature of BPD, marked by difficulty in managing intense emotions. Individuals with BPD often experience rapid mood changes and overwhelming feelings of anger, sadness, or anxiety.
**Interpersonal Dysregulation**
A term used to describe the pattern of unstable, intense relationships in BPD, where individuals may idealize others at first but quickly devalue them if they feel slighted or disappointed.
**Identity Disturbance**
People with BPD often struggle with a distorted or unstable self-image, leading to chronic feelings of emptiness, confusion about who they are, and sudden shifts in goals, values, or career aspirations.
**Chronic Feelings of Emptiness**
A common symptom of BPD, where individuals feel a persistent sense of emptiness, boredom, or lack of purpose, often driving them to seek external validation or stimulation.
**Impulsivity**
A pattern of acting quickly and recklessly, without considering consequences. In BPD, this can manifest as risky behaviors like substance abuse, binge eating, reckless driving, or impulsive spending.
**Self-Harming Behaviors**
Behaviors like cutting, burning, or hitting oneself, often seen in BPD. These actions are often a way of coping with emotional pain, feeling "real," or expressing internal turmoil.
**Suicidal Ideation/Attempts**
People with BPD are at a higher risk for suicidal thoughts, gestures, and attempts. Suicidality can arise from intense emotional pain, fear of abandonment, or impulsive decision-making.
**Idealization-Devaluation Cycle**
A common pattern in BPD relationships where individuals may initially idealize someone, seeing them as perfect, only to rapidly devalue them in response to perceived slights or disappointments.
**Dissociation**
A psychological process where a person feels disconnected from reality, their thoughts, or their sense of self. In BPD, dissociation often occurs during periods of extreme stress or emotional overwhelm.
**Unstable Relationships**
A hallmark of BPD, marked by a pattern of intense, short-lived relationships that swing between extreme closeness and conflict. People with BPD may form deep emotional connections quickly but struggle to maintain them due to emotional volatility.
**Black-and-White Thinking**
Also called "all-or-nothing" thinking, this is the tendency to perceive people, situations, or outcomes as all good or all bad, without recognizing the middle ground. This cognitive distortion often worsens emotional dysregulation.
**Hypervigilance**
A state of heightened awareness and sensitivity to perceived threats, common in individuals with BPD who are fearful of abandonment or rejection. This can lead to paranoia or overreaction in relationships.
**Fear of Intimacy**
A fear of closeness or emotional vulnerability, often conflicting with a simultaneous desire for deep connection. This tension can cause turmoil in relationships and lead to cycles of emotional push-pull behavior.
**Emotional Validation**
A therapeutic term describing the process of recognizing, accepting, and empathizing with another person's emotions. Emotional validation is crucial in treating BPD, as individuals with BPD often feel misunderstood or invalidated by others.
**Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)**
An evidence-based therapy developed by Dr. Marsha Linehan specifically to treat BPD. DBT combines cognitive-behavioral techniques with mindfulness, focusing on emotion regulation, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, and acceptance.
A concept from DBT that teaches individuals to fully accept their current emotional state or life circumstances without trying to change or judge it. This helps reduce emotional suffering and promotes emotional stability.
A skill taught in DBT to help individuals cope with difficult emotions or situations without resorting to self-destructive behaviors. Techniques include mindfulness, self-soothing, and distraction.
**Interpersonal Effectiveness**
A key module of DBT that teaches people with BPD how to communicate more effectively, assert their needs, and maintain healthier relationships without being overly aggressive or passive.
**Mindfulness**
A practice of being present in the moment and observing thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations without judgment. Mindfulness is central to DBT and helps individuals with BPD manage emotional reactivity.
**Invalidation**
A form of emotional abuse or neglect where a person's feelings, thoughts, or experiences are dismissed, ignored, or trivialized. Chronic invalidation is thought to contribute to the development of BPD.
**Emotional Vulnerability**
A heightened sensitivity to emotional stimuli. People with BPD often feel emotions more intensely than others and may take longer to return to a calm baseline after emotional arousal.
**Parasuicidal Behavior**
Non-lethal self-harming behaviors or gestures meant to signal distress rather than a genuine intent to die. This is common in BPD and can include actions like cutting or overdosing without a lethal intent.
**Splitting Episode**
A specific instance where an individual with BPD experiences a cognitive shift, dividing people or situations into all-good or all-bad categories. This can cause extreme emotional reactions and impulsive behavior.
**Emotional Lability**
Rapid and extreme mood swings, a hallmark feature of BPD. Individuals with BPD may experience feelings of joy, anger, sadness, or anxiety in quick succession, often in response to minor triggers.
**Trauma and BPD**
Many individuals with BPD have a history of trauma, particularly in childhood, including abuse, neglect, or unstable family environments. This early trauma is thought to contribute to emotional dysregulation and identity issues.
**Hyper-Emotionality**
Refers to the intense emotional responses typical in individuals with BPD, where even minor stimuli can provoke strong feelings of joy, sadness, anger, or fear.
**Abandonment Anxiety**
A chronic, exaggerated fear of being abandoned or rejected, even when there’s no real threat. This anxiety often leads to frantic efforts to avoid abandonment, sometimes causing relationship instability.
**Countertransference**
In therapy, this refers to the emotional reactions a therapist might have in response to a client with BPD, particularly in response to the emotional intensity and interpersonal dynamics of the disorder.