disorderlypersonality

[disorderlypersonality]

Borderline Personality Disorders:

Personality disorders are a reality in the real world.

More often than not we may be dealing with one or more of them but we never realise due to lack of guidance or professional help.

What accentuates the problem is the general mindset of " taboo" or the social stigma that one faces when coping with mental health issues.

The issue does not get any better when the coping individuals also have to tend with frostiness from people around.

There are at least 10 types of PDs that are identified and documented like Narcissistic, Schizoid, Histrionic, Schizotypal to name a few.

The mother of all is Borderline Personality Disorder or Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder.

It tends to be a chronic condition and one may have the affliction for YEARS without knowing.

EUPD comes with certain specific traits and behaviour patterns that are very pertinent and are easily misconstrued to be isolated patterns that may represent a smaller aspect of any issue.

The obvious signs include :

Feelings of emptiness.

Volatile emotional shifts.

Irrepressible feelings of loss of people close to you.

Intense and unstable relationships.

Frequent changes of perspectives towards people.

Repeated instances of reckless and dangerous behaviour.

Indulging in self harm.

Impulsive reactive behaviour towards others in the face of insecurity.

Unclear sense of self.

Explosive anger.

Dissociative and paranoid thought processes.

The condition is incurable, can be chronic and also be lifelong.

Supportive therapies include cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, transference focussed therapy, psychotherapy, schema therapy.

Beyond the realm of therapies, there are prescription drugs that will help suppress or tone down the patterns over time but the disorder never goes away or is fully cured.

Extreme cases may even require interventional medicine including hospitalization.

All of the above are supportive therapies in one form or the other.

The real elixir for Borderline Personality Disorder is pure, unadulterated emotional support.

And it does not come easy for the giver.

The very basic thing one has to keep in mind when embarking to support is that the emotional support sought will be EXTREMELY DEMANDING to begin with. And maybe it may always be demanding. It may be whimsical, it may come without notice and it may come anytime.

And it always need not be a prolonged, elongated engagement.

Sometimes even a minute works. Sometimes it can stretch to hours.

There may be sporadic instances of DAYS as well.

It all sounds very complicated and virtually undoable which is why a majority of those dealing with EUPD are usually fending for themselves.

The joker said " Madness is like gravity. All it takes is one little push."

The other way of looking at it is a random rambling I read up somewhere.

"Touch. Noun. Verb. A simple and the most powerful reminder that someone is there for you."

Mostly physical. Sometimes gestural.

If a push is swapped for a touch, it can pull people out of the tailspin and sometimes, even save lives.

The solution is as simple as that. Nothing more, nothing less.

For all the souls out there in the sea of faces, who are silently battling EUPD, help is available on demand.

All you need to do is muster the courage to reach out. Talk. Open up.

In the words of Albus Dumbledore,

"Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it."

Welcome to Hogwarts.