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Symptoms & Features

Borderline Personality Disorder manifests through a broad spectrum of symptoms that appear across various areas of life.

Emotional Symptoms

Section titled “Emotional Symptoms”

Emotional Instability

Section titled “Emotional Instability”

The central feature of Borderline Personality Disorder is emotional dysregulation:

  • Rapid and intense mood shifts
  • Hypersensitivity to rejection
  • Difficulty regulating emotions
  • Intense feelings experienced as overwhelming

Chronic Emptiness

Section titled “Chronic Emptiness”

A persistent feeling of inner emptiness that:

  • Is experienced as threatening and unbearable
  • Leads to attempts to fill it through activity, substances, or relationships
  • Is accompanied by the feeling of “not being alive”

Intense Anger

Section titled “Intense Anger”
  • Uncontrollable outbursts of anger
  • Anger that is disproportionate to the trigger
  • Often directed at those closest to them

Relationship Problems

Section titled “Relationship Problems”

Unstable Relationships

Section titled “Unstable Relationships”
  • Idealisation: The partner is initially perceived as perfect
  • Devaluation: When disappointed, this swings to the opposite extreme
  • Rapid alternation between both extremes (splitting)
Splitting behavior of borderline personality in relationships Splitting behavior of borderline personality in relationships 2 2 1 1a 3 3a 2 Normal range (without BPD) 1, 1a, 3, 3a Borderline range 1a Idealization, symbiosis, completed splitting (white) 1 Area of exaggerated admiration, onset of symbiosis 3 Devaluation, beginning of devaluation and splitting 3a Absolute devaluation and completed splitting (black) © Team Borderlinezone D. Sander & T. Laier
The typical oscillating pattern between idealisation and devaluation

Fear of Abandonment

Section titled “Fear of Abandonment”
  • Panic-like fear of being abandoned
  • Desperate attempts to prevent separation
  • Excessive clinging or preemptive leaving

Closeness-Distance Conflict

Section titled “Closeness-Distance Conflict”
  • Simultaneous need for closeness and fear of it
  • “I hate you – don’t leave me”
  • Alternation between approach and withdrawal

Identity Problems

Section titled “Identity Problems”

Disturbed Self-Image

Section titled “Disturbed Self-Image”
  • Uncertainty about one’s own identity
  • Changing goals, values, and preferences
  • The feeling of not knowing who one is

Fluctuating Self-Esteem

Section titled “Fluctuating Self-Esteem”
  • Oscillating between self-devaluation and feelings of grandiosity
  • Dependence on external validation
  • Extreme sensitivity to criticism

Impulsive Behaviour

Section titled “Impulsive Behaviour”

Affected individuals often show impulsive behaviour in areas such as:

  • Substance abuse (alcohol, drugs)
  • Risky sexual behaviour
  • Uncontrolled spending
  • Binge eating or eating disorders
  • Reckless driving
  • Self-harm

Dissociative Symptoms

Section titled “Dissociative Symptoms”

Under stress, the following may occur:

  • Feelings of unreality (derealisation)
  • Feeling of being beside oneself (depersonalisation)
  • Memory problems
  • Brief paranoid thoughts

Further Information

Section titled “Further Information”