Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a type of personality disorder. We might be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder if we have difficulties with how we think and feel about ourselves and other people. And if these difficulties make it hard to cope day to day.
People’s experiences of living with BPD are different for different people. We may experience emotions that are very intense, overwhelming, or changeable. We may also experience difficulties with relationships or our sense of identity. National Minds page on experiences of BPD has more information on what it’s like living with BPD.
We may also hear people use other names for BPD, such as:
- Emotionally unstable personality disorder (EUPD)
- Emotional intensity disorder (EID)
- Borderline pattern personality disorder (borderline pattern PD)
Some people find a BPD diagnosis helpful and explains much of what they have been experiencing. Other people find it an unhelpful or stigmatizing label, that implies our personality is disordered. Sometimes psychiatrists may say they have given us a ‘working diagnosis of personality disorder’, sometimes they say we have traits of personality disorder.
Working together with service users and family/parent carers in Suffolk we have coproduced a booklet that sets out local, national, and online resources that can help us to find helpful ways to manage living with some of the symptoms and experiences of borderline personality disorder.
If there are othresources that have helped you, please do share them with us, so we can include them in this booklet.