BPD is a serious illness — and while it can be challenging, it’s also treatable.

Generally, people with BPD experience intense mood swings and have trouble regulating their emotions. This can impact relationships with loved ones and lead to impulsive and sometimes destructive behaviors.

​Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms

Borderline personality disorder symptoms include:

• Efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment
• A pattern of unstable relationships
• Distorted and unstable self-image or sense of self
• Impulsive and often dangerous behaviors (e.g., substance abuse, unsafe sex, reckless driving)
• Self-harming or suicidal behavior
• Chronic feelings of emptiness
• Intense and highly changeable moods
• Inappropriate bursts of anger or problems controlling anger
• Dissociation – feeling like you’re disconnected from your thoughts or sense of identity

Not everyone with BPD will experience all of these symptoms, but some people will experience many of them over time.

These symptoms usually appear during adolescence or early adulthood, although early symptoms may occur during childhood.