Behavioural Personality Disorder BPD | What Is It

BPD, also known as Behavioral Personality Disorder is something that I suffer with personally. You may also hear it referred to as Emotional Personality Disorder or in short a mild form of Bipolar.

I’m in no way a mental health specialist so please don’t take my word on everything I say, if you need more information go to a professional, that being said I want to talk about my expiernece and what I’ve learnt.

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BPD Symptoms

When it comes to BPD symptoms they can vary from person to person and they’re never “normal” or “the same” so it can be difficult to perdict, although after a while a person can figure out how they will react in certain situations.

Anxiety inducing situations can set off BPD and bring these symptoms out, what I will say is make sure you know how to deal with anxiety in public and it will help settle BPD symptoms when out and about.

When it comes to BPD traits you can see a pattern among people, I’ve joined some BPD Facebook groups and see people talk about the same symptoms and that’s one of the reasons for this post. The BPD disorder is different for everyone, symptoms can be similar.

BPD Mood Swings

BPD and mood swings go hand in hand, not to be mixed up with bipolar mood swings. Bipolar mood swings can last long term although BPD mood swings can be short and very sudden, many people with BPD experience several mood swings a day.

If you’re thinking, what triggers BPD mood swings, well there isn’t always a trigger which is the most troublesome part. That being said, sudden changes or moments of anxiety are key triggers for BPD and situations to avoid.

One thing to remember with these mood swings is they can be extremley emotional to deal with as the person having the mood swing and also the people on the recieving end, their can also be explosive anger as well. Mood swings are unperdictable which makes them even worse.

BPD Memory Loss

I’ve already said I’m not a medical professional but one thing I can say for certain is BPD memory loss dissociation or as I like to call is BPD forgetfullness.

People with BPD are more likely to forget and I’m not talking hours or days worth of memory, I’m talking about forgetting about a conversation 2 minutes after you have it and it can be very frustrating for sure.

Emotional dissociation bpd is set off when a person is under a great deal of stress which makes it easier for a person with BPD to become forgetful, causing dissociation amnesia. I have heard people refer to it as a 7 second goldfish brain when they can’t remember right after something happens!

BPD Depression & Self Harming

Now I’m not going to sugar coat how bad BPD can be because there’s no need for that. Most people who suffer from BPD will also suffer from great depression which can have a hug impact on someone.

It is also common for people with BPD to self harm, self harm happens for many reasons and you’ll find that it isn’t because a person is suicidal but because they need to express emotions and don’t have any other way to do this.

What Is BPD

I hope that I’ve explained the symptoms of BPD better and in more simple terms, it’s a difficult mental health issue to get your head round and can take some getting used to, and that’s just being on the outside looking in and not for the person who has BPD!

Like I said before, I’m no medical professional but I have first hand experience with the condition and sometimes it takes someone to put it into simple terms! If you do have any questions though let me know in the comments and I’ll try my best to help and answer them.

How To Manage BPD

How to understand BPD is one thing but there are various ways in which you can manage BPD and keep BPD under control for the most part. The first thing you need to do if you feel like you might have BPD is to go and see a doctor to get better help.

Secondly, there are things that a person can do to avoid extreme mood swings and other symptoms. I’d suggest eating better, I know it sounds cliche but take a look at my foods that cause anxiety post!

I will also say a great thing to do is make a comfort box, if a mood swing strikes or a person with BPD is feeling depressed, an anxiety comfort box is the way to go. You can read more about it here, what is an anxiety comfort box.