Cause Of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)

Unfortunately, the causes of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), like many other disorders, are not well-known, but biological and psychological factors appear to contribute to the onset. Family members of those with BPD tend to have high occurrences of mood disorders, suggesting that there is a link between mood disorders and BPD. While many traits of BPD tend to be inherited, such as impulsivity and intense emotional reactivity, it appears that environmental factors, specifically early trauma such as sexual or physical abuse, have a significant effect on the onset of BPD. In this way, BPD is quite similar to PTSD in many characteristics, including dissociation, difficulty regulating mood, poor impulse control, and difficulty maintaining interpersonal relationships. The researcher Linehan has found evidence for an environment that is necessary for the onset of BPD. This environment is one in which parents respond erratically, negatively, and/or inappropriately to a child’s emotional and personal experiences. During childhood, people with BPD may have experienced punishment or disregard when they showed emotions, making them believe that their responses are invalid. These negative responses actually impair the child’s ability
to tolerate, regulate, and respond to emotion. This causes a person to not trust their internal feelings and look to the environment for cues on how to react. Because they depend on others so heavily, the person fails to develop a sense of self. Robin’s therapist decided to treat her using dialectical behavior therapy. This therapy addresses suicidal thoughts and actions, behaviors that interfere with therapy, behaviors that have a severe effect on the quality of life, and increasing general coping strategies. Robin had individual therapy that focused on motivating her to stay alive and crisis intervention. She also had to endure therapy that helped her to reexperience traumatic events without becoming afraid. On top of her individual therapy, she also attended weekly group therapy that taught her various skills, including improvements in social skills and identifying and regulating emotions.
Unfortunately, Robin did not feel a high motivation to live. Often times, Robin would become angry or withdrawn during her therapy sessions, and she did not see any value in herself. Her therapist closely followed her self-reports in order to pinpoint the root of her parasuicidal behaviors. He was able to find a link between her parasuicidal behaviors and her feelings of being unloved or criticized, especially by her husband.
Further into her treatment, Robin did not seem to improve; she expressed a great deal of self-doubt in her ability to not kill herself. She even endured several hospital stays during her treatment for self-harm. This combination, according to her therapist, was most likely contributing to her continued behaviors. Robin’s therapist did her best to validate Robin’s feelings and explain her episodes of dissociation. Eventually, Robin’s therapist had to rearrange part of her treatment plan to help with her suicidal ideations. Sadly, Robin’s husband could not handle the stress of his wife’s psychological issues and filed for divorce, which caused her even more emotional pain. These issues all led to Robin transferring to a residential treatment facility.
Robin’s condition, at first, did not seem to improve, but during her later months of treatment, her therapist observed great improvements. Unfortunately, this did not last long. During her fourteenth month of treatment, Robin learned that her ex-husband had found a new woman to share his life with, causing her great mental anguish. After a bout of drinking, she consumed an overdose of prescription drugs and died in her sleep.
THINKING CRITICALLY
Factors that contribute to a higher occurrence of BPD in women than in men are that they seem to be more emotional, more reliant on others’ opinions, more likely to experience childhood sexual trauma, and there may be a bias in therapists that women are more susceptible than men, or men simply do not report it as frequently.
These people do not understand how to deal with their emotions. A seemingly minor negative comment could send them spirally into a pit of depression, making them believe that they are not good enough for anything. These feelings can contribute to their suicidal ideations. The best way to respond to someone with suicidal gestures is to, first, let them know that you care and that you think that their life is worth it. Secondly, they need professional help and should be taken to some immediately.
Similarities are that both disorders include impulsivity and dissociation, and they are both used to cope with traumatic events. I believe that their similarities are more prominent than their differences because the one large difference between the two is that DID includes multiple personalities, while BPD does not. This is a big difference, but the two share so many characteristics that they can be mistaken for one another, if not enough information is known.
There is always hope.
Robin’s suicide could have been prevented in the physical sense. If her roommate had watched her all night, she could have stopped her overdose after her drinking. However, Robin was incredibly hopeless from the moment she set foot in the therapist’s office. She felt that she was of no value to the world, and that did not seem to improve too greatly. Once she did begin to show improvement, she was thrown back down the tunnel of depression after a phone call with her ex husband. Had she not had this phone call, she could have continued to make improvements, perhaps even making a full recovery. Once this phone call was made, however, I am unsure that anything could have brought her back except for 24/7 hospital
watch.