Borderline personality disorder
What is it
There are a few other names for borderline personality disorder. You might see or hear people talking about ‘BPD’, ‘emotionally unstable personality disorder’, or ‘EUPD’.
No two people’s personalities are the same – their personalities are what make them who they are. Young people’s personalities are still developing, so if they start to experience features linked to a personality disorder, they might be diagnosed with an ‘emerging’ or ‘borderline’ personality disorder.
Having a personality disorder doesn’t mean that there’s something bad about a person or who they are. It means that the way they see themselves and relate to others has been affected by their negative experiences and that they have difficulties with their emotions. For people with a personality disorder, these things affect their day-to-day lives. People with borderline personality disorder find that their emotions change a lot (often because of their relationships with people) and feel very intense.
Feelings and behaviours
- Feeling alone and abandoned
- Having emotions that change very quickly and in an extreme way
- Having doubt about who you are
- Feeling empty
- Wondering if anybody really cares about you
- Difficulty making or keeping close relationships
- In some cases, thinking about self-harm or hurting yourself
- Feeling angry a lot or struggling to contain your answer
- Having unusual experiences such as hearing voices
Physical signs
- Taking increased risks with: drugs, relationships, education, money, your things, or your body.
- Feeling impulsive (likely to do things without thinking them through first) and doing impulsive things such as spending lots of money or taking risks.
What’s going on
Interviews, art, blogs, and tips about mental health and wellbeing.
It can be difficult to know how to start a conversation about mental health. Here are some tips and conversation starters.
The DBT Travel Guide app is designed to support people with a diagnosis of emotionally unstable personality disorder (EUPD, also known as borderline personality disorder or BPD) who are following a dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) programme.
The Calm Harm app helps you ‘surf the wave’ of the urge to self-harm until the urge fades.
Information about how Doc Ready helps make talking to a GP about mental health easier.
Get support for how you’re feeling
Get mental health support for young people
Information about mental health services (including CAMHS) if you’re a young person in Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Kensington and Chelsea, or Westminster.
Digital mental health support for young people across the UK
Information about apps, websites, and other digital tools that exist to support you with your mental health and wellbeing.