Your personality plays a huge role in how you present yourself to the world. The characteristics that influence your behavioral, cognitive and emotional patterns help you form your sense of self and identity. But there are also mental health disorders that can indicate negative personality patterns. These patterns can interfere with your quality of life.

Personality disorders center on disruptive patterns of behavior, thoughts and emotions. There are many types of personality disorders. We’re going to talk about the symptoms of a common personality disorder, called borderline personality disorder.

Read on to learn about borderline personality disorder and the most common borderline personality disorder symptoms to be aware of. We’ll also compare them to symptoms of bipolar disorder.

What is borderline personality disorder?

Let’s start off with the basics. Borderline personality disorder, or BPD, is characterized by highly emotional and impulsive thinking. It’s centered on the inability to regulate your emotions. It can cause extreme mood swings and unstable behavior that affects your relationships with other people as well as yourself.

Borderline personality disorder can make it difficult to form a healthy self-image. It causes patterns that stem from the intense need for acceptance from others.

Borderline personality disorder is one of the most common personality disorders in the United States. It affects nearly 6% of the general population.

10 most common borderline personality disorder symptoms

Just like every other mental health disorder, borderline personality disorder looks different for everyone. The symptoms as well as their severity can vary from person to person. But by learning about the most common borderline personality disorder symptoms, you can know what to look for. Then you can hopefully acknowledge the patterns that require treatment.

Here are 10 common borderline personality disorder symptoms to be aware of:

1. Mood swings
2. Intense fear of abandonment and rejection
3. Trust issues
4. Impulsive and risky behavior
5. Consistent changes in self-identity
6. Frequent shifts in values and beliefs
7. Black-and-white perception of reality
8. Feeling empty and without hope
9. Difficulty being alone
10. Self-injury or suicidal thoughts

Comparing borderline personality disorder symptoms with bipolar disorder symptoms

Even though bipolar disorder is a mood disorder, it’s often confused with borderline personality disorder. That means that there’s potential for misdiagnosis and untreated symptoms.

The main similarity between bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder is that one of their most prominent symptoms is mood changes. But it’s important to remember that the emotional shifts of bipolar disorder cycle between manic highs and depressive lows, known as episodes. Manic episodes are characterized by unusually high levels of energy and emotion. Depressive episodes consist of overwhelming feelings of sadness and malaise.

Even though individuals with borderline personality disorder have symptoms that can be similar to bipolar disorder episodes, the length of time of the mood swings is one of the biggest differences between the mental health disorders. Manic bipolar disorder episodes can last up to seven days, followed by depressive episodes that can last more than two weeks. On the other hand, BPD mood changes tend to only last for a few hours at a time.

Another difference between the two is the pattern of mood swings. Individuals with bipolar disorder only experience mood swings during an episode. BPD extreme mood changes can occur at any time and may cycle throughout the day.

Lightfully Behavioral Health can help treat borderline personality disorder symptoms 

Borderline personality disorder symptoms can make you feel like you’re unable to manage your emotions. It can take a toll on every aspect of your life. It can be hard on your interpersonal relationships as well as setting goals for the future. The constant struggle with trying to figure out who you are and how you see yourself can also affect your personal development and success. The good news is that we’re here to help.

At Lightfully Behavioral Health, we can help you manage your borderline personality disorder symptoms for a happier and healthier future. We use process-based therapy to provide personalized, holistic treatment in four levels of care: Residential Treatment, Virtual Intensive Outpatient Program (vIOP), Partial Hospitalization Program, also called our Day Treatment Program, and Intensive Outpatient Program.

Change is possible. When you’re ready to take the first step toward treating borderline personality disorder symptoms, reach out to our Admissions Concierge Team. We’ll take the next steps together, toward the fullest, brightest version of you.