9 Criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) impacts a person’s ability to regulate their emotions. This can affect how a person feels about themselves, increase impulsivity, and negatively impact their relationships with others. This video covers the 9 criteria that are evaluated when making a BPD diagnosis.


Dr. Beth Brodsky Associate Clinical Professor of Medical Psychology in Psychiatry at Columbia University. Dr. Brodsky is also the Associate Director of the Suicide Prevention Initiative at the Center for Practice Innovations at the New York State Psychiatric Center. Her areas of expertise include research and psychotherapeutic treatment of self-destructive behavior in borderline personality disorder, which is the focus of this episode. She has published numerous articles and chapters on the topics of suicidal risk and treatment of suicidal behavior and borderline personality disorder. She is trained in dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) and teaches DBT to psychiatry residents and psychology trainees. She has a private practice in Manhattan.

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[leapsill]

I think what needs to be mentioned is that these traits should be on a consistent basis.. everyone can have a bad day here or there and have 5 of these characteristics during stressful times. But that doesn’t mean they are borderline.

[universeearth]

I'm studying mental health. The more l study the more l see everybody as mental sick

[DonnDenisse]

I got diagnosed with BPD since my teenage. I'm a veteran, was actually addicted to alcohol and cigarettes. I suffered severe depression and mental disorder. Got diagnosed with BPD. Not until my wife recommended me to psilocybin mushrooms treatment. Psilocybin treatment saved my life honestly. 8 years totally clean. Much respect to mother nature the great magic shrooms.

[jenesaispas]

hi. just gonna share SOME of my experiences. obviously i’m not gonna share my worst ones because this is a public youtube comment section. i know some of these might make me seem like a bad or messy person but whatever

#1: frantic efforts to avoid abandonment:
around a year ago, i had a pretty close best friend. we are young, so she started experimenting with drugs. she started becoming closer to people who did drugs w her. because of this, i started doing them too. i made them my whole personality, oded multiple times, gained multiple addictions, etc. i never really even liked them, but i somehow convinced myself that i needed to do them or else everyone would leave me.

2: unstable relationships:
fun fact: i only have 2 friends that ive known for more than 3 years! all the rest ive either ghosted them because i thought they hated me or did something to make them hate me. and i’m gonna be honest, i’ve always tried to do the best thing in each situation. i can’t remember the last time i’ve purposely did something wrong. (but that’s not the point) my last boyfriend only lasted a month and we dated twice. my last job only lasted 2 weeks. (which is a pretty long time for me) the bsf i talked about in #1 only lasted like maybe 8 months. my social standing is constantly changing because i simply cannot have the same social group for more than half a year, sometimes not even a week. also, i cannot feel “mediocre” about anything. it always just crying and cutting or celebrating and drinking.

3: impulsive behaviors:
this one’s rough for me. just a week ago i ran away from my house and parents (im a teen) into the winter wisconsin forests. (probably got frostbite) i spend all the money from my month-long jobs on useless shit (plants i can’t feed, room decorations that cost $100s) that i throw away in an episode probably just days later. and if i’m not spending it? i’m giving it away so people don’t hate me. i have multiple stick and poke tattoos that will never leave my body (i’ve never liked tattoos? i don’t know why i did them either.. i don’t even like art?) i’ve destroyed multiple phones and electronics by throwing them or biting them or stabbing them (no wonder i’m broke). i wasn’t gonna share this but i’ve tried (and almost succeeded) burning my school and house down. also, i physically cannot walk into a store and NOT steal anything

4: self harm.
this one’s pretty self explanatory, but just know my parents don’t even buy painkillers anymore. also u can j look at my scars. i’ve had to be pinned down by people while forcing my sleeves up to.. yk see them.

5: explosive anger.
jesus christ. i’m not sure how to exactly explain it but at one moment ur doing just fine and then something just burns inside of you and you can’t even begin to control it. it takes all the other emotions you feel and just repleacss it with pure anger and hate. some results of this are holes in my wall, broken objects, sore vocal chords from screaming, etc.

6: extreme mood swings
this one isn’t HUGE for me, but it still definitely exists. there’s not much to say besides just being so fucking unstable. i don’t even know who i am at ALL because how am i supposed to when i’m a different person every 2 hours? i guess it’s not necessarily the worst thing because at least i’ll swing into a happy mania sometimes 🤷. although, it makes everything 10000 times more tiring. i can wake up at 8am after a good nights sleep, swing into 4 different moods by the time it’s 11am, and be so emotionally and physically tired.

7: unclear or shifting self image.
when i say i have absolutely zero clue on my actual personality i mean it. when teachers do those things that are like “write 3 things about yourself!” i genuinely cannot write a single thing down. id 100% rather do calculus than that. but also?? my personality COMPLETELY changes every ≈half year. i’m not kidding either, i’ve observed it since 7th grade.

8: chronic feelings of emptiness
idk what to say besides this is the most tiring, hurting-but-also-not-hurting thing EVER. there’s always been like a black whole in my brain, and wether i try to fill it with drugs, food, friends, relationships, etc, it is never satisfied. it has never even been 1% satisfied. no matter what i do i just always feel so empty - like a hollow person. i guess this just makes relationships even MORE difficult, as i get so attached to even the idea of not being empty because of someone, that it hurts so much more when people leave.

9: feeing suspicious or out of touch with reality.
some of this probably is just me being horribly derealized, but here this goes. i once convinced myself (still partially have) that i am in a government study-simulation that the only way i can escape is suicide.
i also convinced myself that everyone was wearing physical masks to disguise themself as people i knew. this has led to not being able to trust anyone.


i was gonna continue writing more but im way too tired now, sorry.

[APerson]

I have quiet bpd but the older I get, the harder it is to hide my anger. Sometimes I become so angry that my vision becomes temporarily blurry.

[scalper]

My life got ruined with this disorder. I'm 38 now. Lost everything. Just sober

[skrtskrt]

just got diagnosed and it makes a lot of sense. it's so tiring having bpd.

[venus-mxlx]

I'm waiting for a diagnosing but I've gotten multiple professionals tell me that I have a very high chance of suffering from BPD. 9/9 of the symptoms, life is great

[xJazzyAppy]

Yep, my doctors tell my constantly how im a "textbook" case and i just LOVE how these videos agree with them....

[mast]

The problem is, I know that these 9 traits seems very similar with other disorder, actually their appearances are very different. You can see, someone can got 8/9 point by this chart but got another diagnosis. Why? Because they are not the same. You can't diagnose someone with just by a chart. For example, someone who got fear of abandomment is always anxious or angry and tend to behave harshly when they feel they are at break up situation. This don't have to be BPD. It may be PTSD or scheme in mind. You see, I just marked 3 items of chart. What matter is not what happened but how the situation unfolded. Catatonic symptoms of schzophrenia and major depression got similar features in chart but the manifestation of these features is very different.

What I am trying to say, reductionism to reading 9 features and making a diagnosis is reducing ordinary peoples faith in psychiatry and psychology. I know it is not that simple, you don't diagnose by it and examine deeply but it seems like it from outside. People have problems when they see that 5 different diagnoses have the same items.

Without medical history and patient story, nothing can be diagnosed. You can be BPD or regular macho characterized with bad childhood or autism if you just read chart. Do you got suspicion about your psychological situation? Go to an expert and tell your problem with story. Without story, no one can say if someone is major depression, unhappy, in mourning or schzophrenia by just looking his/her neglection and dirty.

I don't say chart is meaningless. I say it can be misleading for uneducated and inexperienced people. Unfortunately, psychology is mostly verbal field and anyone who knows how to read has "opinion" about this. Like, reddit youth who can read Mises and draw supply-demand chart become libertarian economy demagogue.

[RainRemnant]

So lucky for having all 9. So lucky for having a few more disorders on top of that. So lucky I lost my husband now who couldn't handle my BPD but after 5 years still can't remember the name borderline. On the other hand I couldn't have handled the constant betraying and gaslighting anymore. Or feeling bad or crazy for getting angry over that and struggling with trusting. But still cant help but feel crushed, especially since after my mother passed away 3 years ago he was all I had in my life, gave him my all... And now so lucky we have social media, the only place left to try reach out because people connect on here so good 🙄😔

[Ultra_Fine_Point]

Had the doctor at the V.A. tell me I was BPD....all of a sudden, it all made sense. These are my symptoms...yeah, I guess I am BPD. Wow. And it's okay. I'm "okay". Really wish I knew this before, y'know? If you have BPD, that's okay. You can still have a great Life. Don't give up, ever. Keep pushing forward. God LOVES YOU!

[astralbeatz]

Jeeesus this shit is spot on- I pretty much figured this was my issue when someone asked me what I did in my free time and I struggled to figure out how to explain the fact that one side of me enjoys reading, physics and mathematics, classical music etc. And then the other side just wants to blast trap music and get fucked up at a party. It is such a shitty duality to be honest but slowly overtime the two have started to morph into what you labeled as a more cohesive sense of myself. I hope to one day truly understand who I am and what I am searching for in this world.

[taniagauci]

The reason for any personality - disorder is that we all have a personality type - which is biological- and the disorder is always due to the developmental factors that have influenced the growing personality. There is not so much a stigma on mental health, people are not informed and taught about the workings of their mind as a formal and integral part of learning and education. Instead we go to school to say learn to read and write but are completely desensitised from all the suffering at home and school that are contributing to the mental health problems developing. So we are never really learning anything if the most important component of understanding how our minds and emotions work is not properly addressed. All young minds need to know is how easily influenced their mind is and how the mind works and how we process information. Then we could learn anything. Many thanks for your video 😊💕

[doom]

I have all the symptoms (except the fear of abandonment) meaning that yes I don't wanna be abandoned but i will never beg someone to stay and if someone is not "okay" i will throw them out of my life. The saddest thing that literally destroys me is that years before i had(still) depression and i thought that it was something that i couldn't be saved off..(maybe was true idk)
And now all these years, fighting everything alone the problems hugely grew up and i am hopeless. I just can't be saved. And i even can't suicide cause i will cause a huge pain to my mother and she don't deserves that..but tho i must live everyday like hell for the rest of my life..

[elin_]

4/9.. Fear of abandonment, mood swings feelings of emptiness and problems with my self-image.

[Seba-lkhp]

I searched high and low to see other diagnosis fit me because my family thinks I'm bipolar and I have suffered with depression for as long as i can remember. At a certain point, I just believed I was a very messed up person. I literally just lost the love of my life because I fit all of these criteria but I will seek a medical professional, again, before. I am a messed up person but I think I see a step in the right direction before I do something harmful. I feel almost hopeless.

[JollyMidnight]

I have abandonment issues and fear of being rejected, and borderline traits. My dad couldn't regulate his emotions, and would neglect me, and my mom has issues handling her emotion and left me
Both threatened to leave me when there was issues or argument

I would even get scared when neighbors would move away

[knitpurl]

My mother never threatened suicide. What she did do is lie about health issues she never had and stated to me as a young child that she would soon be dead. From the Reddit sub forum, I've found this is not rare. These though don't make it to the ER and are much less documented.

[Xxmakix]

I always didn’t know what I want in life I like everything and nothing at the same time, I went to college n studied till third year and now I wanna change my major but I don’t know what I want.. once I was in a program and someone asked me how will you describe yourself or who you are? and my mind went blank I didn’t know what to say it’s so frightening