What does high functioning BPD look like?

Impulsive and risky behaviors (perhaps around spending, eating, driving, gambling, or other areas of life) Relationships suffering—with family, friends, significant others, and coworkers. Isolation. Worsening co-occurring mental health disorders.

What are the biggest signs of BPD?

Symptoms

• Wide mood swings lasting from a few hours to a few days, which can include intense happiness, irritability, shame or anxiety.
• Ongoing feelings of emptiness.
• Inappropriate, intense anger, such as frequently losing your temper, being sarcastic or bitter, or having physical fights.

Can you function with BPD?

If you think you have BPD, don’t let this misconception scare you away from therapy or make you feel helpless. Even without treatment, the symptoms of the disorder will ebb and flow over time; some people with BPD are able to function at a higher level than others, so recovery is different for each person.

What is it like living with quiet BPD?

Someone with Quiet BPD ‘implodes’ rather than ‘explodes’. You put yourself down when bad things happen, and when you feel rage, you hurt yourself rather than lash out at others. The emotional pain you suffer is not any less than someone with other forms of BPD, but you do all that you can to hide it.

Why are people with BPD so often misdiagnosed?

Here are some of the reasons why BPD is so often misdiagnosed: 1. Symptoms don’t appear early on. People with Borderline Personality Disorder can come off as quite normal in their superficial relationships, such as those with friends and initially with therapists.

What are triggers for BPD?

For example, many people with BPD find that their symptoms are triggered by criticism from loved ones, reminders of traumatic events, or perceived episodes of abandonment or rejection . These memories or actions can bring on symptoms of BPD, such as extreme emotional reactions and poor impulse control.

What are the diagnostic criteria for BPD?

Criteria for diagnosing BPD. These are the criteria mental health professionals use to diagnose borderline personality disorder: Frantic efforts to avoid abandonment, real or imagined. A pattern of unstable and intense relationships. An unstable self-image or sense of self. Dangerous impulsivity such as unsafe sexual encounters, substance abuse.

Does BPD change the brain?

In other words, the brains of people with BPD are built differently and operate differently because genetic processes and traumatic life experiences affected their natural course of development. In a sense, these alterations in the brain are borderline personality disorder, at least from a neurological standpoint.