CHAPTER 1 - WHAT IS BORDERLINE DISORDER

BPD is also referred to as biosocial disorder among experts. This means that this disorder often starts with an inclination towards biological factors but is then intensified by the social environment of an individual.

By temperament, the people with BPD often are intensely emotionally sensitive and very reactive. This is because they tend to feel things immediately and intensely as opposed to other people. Once their powerful and intense emotions have been triggered, it takes them a very long duration to get back to the emotional baseline.

It is important to note that when these emotionally vulnerable people are confronted by their surroundings because they cannot validate their feelings, they develop BPD. In other words, they feel as though the people around them do not fully understand and acknowledge them as they are enough to help them handle their condition. In most cases, children who develop BPD have been shown to suffer abuse and neglect. Additionally, BPD also arises in children whose parents or guardians - well-meaning and loving - reduce their emotional feelings too much because they think that they are inappropriate or exaggerated.

To be fair, it is typical for most parents to overreact and dismiss their children's emotional feelings. However, when it comes to children who are highly reactive, feeling that they are not understood or supported by the people that mean the world to them often is painful. It is this kind of response that often cause them to withdraw from their parents to the level that their relationship is completely disconnected.

Emotional Dysregulation in BPD

One thing that is important to note is that when a child's feelings are not validated by their parents or someone that they look up to in life, it makes it hard for them to learn how to manage their condition in a very healthy way. The truth is that, it is the adult's/parent's responsibility to help their children identify and name their feelings. When they soothe what their children feel, they teach them how to soothe and calm themselves down better whenever they are alone.

Let us consider an instance where someone has intensely strong emotions and is constantly overreacting. Is this how they should feel on a daily basis? Well, this is no way for anyone to feel this way. But when they don't get the support they need; this kind of reaction becomes something ongoing that they don't even know how to regulate or modulate their emotional feelings.

What you will note about people with BPD is that they are often overwhelmed by feelings of intense anger, emptiness, self-loathing, shame, and abandonment among others. It is these kinds of feelings that causes their relationships to be quite unstable - hence causing them to be prone to interpreting things negatively.

When they misinterpret things, they feel as though it is an evidence of rejection. Their reaction becomes swift and intense causing them to disconnect with their friends, parents, spouses, partners among others in their social circle. What is shocking is that they can go from "I love you" to "I hate you" in just a heartbeat. This can of disconnect with the people they love often trigger self-destructive behaviors such as suicidal attempts.

Self-destructive behavior

One question I hear people ask each time when talking about someone with BPD is "why does he/she have a self-destructive behavior?"

What is important to note is that when you don't have the skills to effectively manage painful feelings, being self-destructive can be the easy way out. You resort to unhealthy alternatives such as reckless driving, substance abuse, suicidal attempts, and risky sex just as a way of affirming to yourself what you feel.

Among teenagers with BPD, the most common way of self-injury is scratching, cutting or opening up healing wounds just so that they can deal with their intolerable emotions. In most cases, this is thought of as an emotional regulation strategy. In case they feel that this kind of reaction works, there is a high likelihood that they will use it again when they have negative feelings in the future.

It is important that these kinds of tendencies are reduced significantly. The best way to start is to acknowledge the kind of harm it is doing to you or them so that you can try to find a safer replacement alternative strategy to use for your painful emotions.

What many people fail to realize is that when someone resorts to these self-destructive behaviors, it is their manipulative way of seeking attention. I already mentioned earlier that people with BPD have been framed as manipulative. While this is an unfair way of describing them without understanding what exactly they are experiencing, it is something that they do on purpose. However, the main reason why they do this is because they are going through extreme pain and have the feeling that they cannot get what they need.

In other words, it is a desperate way for them to escape their intense emotional distress.

Causes of BPD

This is the most important factor when thinking of how to cope. It is important to know what could have possibly caused your borderline disorder so that you do not end up beating yourself up thinking that you are the one to blame.

What you need to understand is that this is a disorder whose development is quite complex. There are so many causes that might contribute to this condition and you should rest assured that no one factor or person is at fault.

According to most experts, BPD can occur as a result of genetic, biological as well as environmental factors. However, its exact cause is not yet fully known or understood. Today, what experts are dealing with are theories in support of BPD causes. However, they are in no way conclusive. There is therefore, need to conduct further research to determine how and why these factors contribute to BPD.

Potential environmental BPD causes

According to research, there is evidence that points at a link between distressed childhood experiences with caregivers, and BPD. Some of the experiences we are talking about here include;

-       Early separation from the caregivers

-       Physical and sexual abuse

-       Parental insensitivity

-       Emotional as well as physical neglect

According to research, it is thought that there is an interaction between an invalidating childhood environment and biological factors that contribute to one developing BPD. When one is raised in an invalidating surrounding, it means that their emotional needs were not adequately met.

Unfortunately, when you talk about an invalidating surrounding, it is often not evident to those who have experienced it or even those around them. This is mainly because their experiences are often hidden or come off in the form of disguised praise.

That said, what you need to bear in mind is that not everyone that has been diagnosed with BPD has had painful childhood experiences. In most cases, there is a possibility for a combination of factors and not just a single one.

Potential genetic and biological BPD causes

There are certain studies that show that BPD is hereditary and tends to run in families. However, we have to register the fact that there was a long time when people did not really know whether BPD is genetic or environmentally-linked. That said, there is evidence from recent research that demonstrates genetic factors contribute a great deal to this condition.

Particularly, there are studies that show that there is a variation in genes that control the manner in which the brain utilizes serotonin. In other words, people with this kind of variation in the serotonin gene have a high likelihood of developing BPD. This is especially the case when they have had a difficult childhood - separation from caregivers, abuse and neglect among others.

According to one study, it was shown that monkeys with a variation in their serotonin gene developed symptoms associated with BPD. However, this was only the case when they were taken from their mothers and brought up in an environment that did not support proper caregiving and nurture.

On the other hand, monkeys who has a variation in their serotonin gene but were raised by their mothers had a low likelihood of developing BPD-like symptoms.

What is interesting is that research has demonstrated evident difference in structure and function of the brain among people diagnosed with BPD. This explains the reason why people with this disorder often have excessive activity in parts of their brain that are responsible for controlling expression of emotions and experiences. For instance, the limbic system has more activation. This area of the brain is responsible for controlling such emotions as aggression, fear and anger - something that is not highly activated in people without BPD. This may explain the reason why people with this disorder often suffer from emotional instability.

What is more is that newer studies have reported an association between the hormone oxytocin with the development of BPD.

So, what is the bottom line cause of BPD?

The truth is that there is still so much to learn about BPD and there is a high chance that it is a result of a combination of factors rather than a single specific factor. There is ongoing research and hopefully, we will be able to have a definite cause or link in the coming years.

That said, it is critical to realize that understanding the potential causes of BPD goes a long way in helping one prevent the onset of the disorder. This is especially helpful for those that have a genetic or biological...