Emotionally unstable personality disorder most often lies in wait for women. Among the entire population, it can be found in 2% of cases. In patients who are on outpatient treatment in a psychiatric hospital - 10%, and in those hospitalized in a psychiatric clinic - 20%.
How does the disease manifest itself?
ICD 10 characterizes emotionally unstable personality disorder as unbalanced, incapable of self-control and increased impulsivity.
The disease is observed in both young and older people. A person has a broken self-esteem, he cannot form relationships with other people and very often is in a state of non-existence, or, in other words, affect.
With this disease, patients:
- Feeling constant loneliness and making frantic attempts to avoid it.
- They have mood swings.
- They experience a feeling of separation, loss, resulting intheir behavior, emotions, thinking and feelings inevitably change.
- Experience great fear of changing plans.
- Get angry and unbalanced even with short intervals of separation.
- They believe that if they are left alone, it will bring them great harm. These feelings cause impulsiveness in behavior, which can lead to self-harm of the patient.
A person can so fiercely perceive both an effective reality and invent his own vision of our world.
How are interpersonal relationships?
Relationships with other people are unstable. They are accompanied by conflict situations.
The patients idealize their guardians or lovers from the first days of their acquaintance. They want to constantly be with the object of desire and from the first days require entry into intimate aspects.
At the same time, the ideal also quickly depreciates in their eyes. They easily begin to think that the person who was so close to them has cooled down and does not pay due attention.
Their empathy is based only on the expectation that other people will begin to sympathize and satisfy all the desires and needs of the patient. If their opinions differ, then emotionally unstable individuals dramatically change their views on others.
What does identification mean?
It is expressed in the instability of the representation of one's personality. Variable evaluation of one's "I" is expressed in a constant change in life goals andprofessional skills. For example, a good-natured person asking for help for himself suddenly becomes angry and vengeful. However, he always fights for the truth.
Although in most cases these individuals consider themselves evil and aggressive, and sometimes they even think that they do not exist on this planet. This is mainly manifested when a person does not feel his importance and support from the people around him.
Individuals affected by this disease are impulsive in risky circumstances. They can:
- get into gambling;
- don't know how to count money and spend it irresponsibly;
- eat a lot of food and not feel full;
- use psychotropic substances;
- change many sexual partners;
- take risks while driving.
Suicidal tendencies
People with an emotionally unstable personality disorder have a predisposition to acts that can take their life. At the same time, suicidal attempts are constantly repeated.
Despite the fact that patients like to defiantly make suicide attempts, only eight percent achieve complete demise from life. The actions of the rest are aimed at ensuring that the people who are next to them pay attention to them. They may cut themselves or deliberately create burns on their bodies. If attention is not paid and help is not provided, attempts to take one's own life continue.
They can be caused by impending separation from the object of love. At the same time, suicidal attempts provide relief forsome time, especially if the patient was heard and understood, and also these actions made the other person understand that he did wrong in relation to the patient.
Emotionally unstable personality disorder symptoms
People of this type are characterized as follows:
- They are constantly on their toes.
- Their he alth is fluctuating.
- A person may look down and depressed for a few days.
- Irritation and anxiety can last from several hours to several days.
- Patients feel empty and therefore constantly trying to do something.
- Sometimes, in very normal circumstances, they express anger, sarcasm and verbal outbursts violently. At the same time, they immediately feel an acute sense of guilt for their actions and thus seem even more vicious to themselves.
- The patients are carefree, cheeky and secretive at the same time.
These people are able to destroy everything when the goal is almost reached. For example, dropping out of school before graduation, or breaking off a relationship at a time when everything is well established.
Attacks of a state in which a person feels as if out of reality, in a strangely changed world, or feels that his mind has separated from his body, occur precisely during periods of abandonment and loneliness. But once care is resumed, these symptoms disappear.
Mostfrequent personality disorders
The most common and common emotionally unstable personality disorders include:
- The manifestation of bulimia (after eating, a person gets rid of it by artificially inducing vomiting).
- Stress disorders after injury.
- Sudden mood swings.
- There is no impulse control at a young age.
- Suicidal attacks. Most often appear at a young age. The older a person gets, the less he is pursued by attempts to commit suicide.
- Tensive relationships with people and impulsive disorders haunt a person throughout his life.
These manifestations are especially pronounced in persons who abuse psychotropic active substances.
Those who turn to specialized medical institutions for help are subject to cure. Improvements occur already in the first year of therapy.
What are the types of personality disorder?
There are two types of this disease:
- border type;
- impulsive type.
In a borderline state, in addition to emotional instability, there are difficulties with the awareness of one's own image. A person does not feel his intentions and preferences, thereby seeking to harm himself.
Self-esteem of the individual is very high, which is not perceived properly by others. The patient is too arrogant and impatient.
In the second type, the person is prone to impulsive manifestations and acts hastily in all situations without hesitationabout the consequences. In response to condemnation from the surrounding people, the patient shows rigidity and aggression.
Impulsive Diagnosis
This type is characterized by the following manifestations:
- Tendency to act suddenly. Don't consider the consequences of your actions.
- Relationships with other people are built on constant conflict.
- Anger and violence emerge.
- Sick people demand immediate reward for their actions, otherwise they don't follow through.
- Unstable mood, accompanied by constant whims.
Being in this type of environment is hard and unpleasant.
Borderline Diagnosis
The following characteristics are distinguished for the borderline state:
- Man does not understand himself. He does not feel his own "I" and therefore cannot decide what he really wants.
- The patient enters into promiscuity, constantly changing partners.
- Directs all her energy into avoiding loneliness.
- The patient is suicidal.
- He constantly feels unwanted and empty.
If you seek treatment at a psychiatric clinic at a young age, then by the age of 40, both relationships with other people and professional relationships are being established.
Varieties of the border type
This type of pathology has several forms, for which it wasdivided for easier diagnosis of emotionally unstable personality disorder. Here is their list:
- phobic shape;
- hysterical;
- pseudo-depressive;
- obtrusive;
- psychosomatic;
- psychotic.
Let's take a closer look at each of them.
Phobic form
The patient's thoughts are constantly occupied with various fears and anxieties. These feelings leave a certain imprint on the emotional state of a person.
People are able to exaggerate problems and yet distance themselves from their solutions. They don't want to be responsible for anything.
Hysterical form
This form characterizes people who like to dramatize in public and have theatrical talents.
These patients achieve their goals by manipulating other people.
Their actions are quite active, or, conversely, the person looks too depressed, which in some cases can lead to suicidal actions.
Pseudo-depressive form
In this case, the actions of people are different from classic depression. People do not perceive themselves in reality and cannot evaluate their actions. This form in some cases represents suicide.
Obsessive shape
In this case, patients are obsessed with hiding their mental disorders. To relieve internal tension, she gives out a huge number of ideas to the world.
Psychosomatic form
In this disease, patients complain of somatic disorderscardiovascular system and gastrointestinal tract. But the examination does not reveal these problems.
Psychotic form
This is the most severe form of the disease and includes specific personality disorders. Man is renounced from the real world. He is delusional and is haunted by hallucinations. As a result, all his actions become self-destructive.
Treatment of the impulsive type
Patients are given individual or group psychotherapy. They use means aimed at suppressing impulsive states.
Gest alt therapy and behavioral therapy are also used.
Borderline treatment
It can be very difficult to define a borderline condition, sometimes even for several years. The doctor conducts a large number of studies and prescribes therapeutic treatment only after the clinical picture becomes clear.
The treatment process necessarily includes psychotherapy procedures.
Doctors' actions are directed to:
- The return of man to the real environment.
- The patient's ability to withstand emerging stressful situations.
- Improve the patient's relationships with others.
- Struggle with emotional imbalance.
In the course of the entire treatment, the patient should be surrounded by the care and love of people close to him.
Therapeutic Approaches
Doctors use the followingtherapeutic approaches:
- Dialectical-behavioral. The patient's negative attitudes are identified and replaced with positive ones.
- Cognitive-analytical. As a result of the actions of doctors, patients begin to understand their condition and learn to deal with its manifestations.
Treatment is chosen depending on the individual characteristics of the patient.
Drugs for Personality Disorders
Among the medicines are:
- Neuroleptics. Struggling with impulsive explosions.
- Antidepressants. They are used most often, as they help to cope with the stress and anxiety of the patient.
- Normotimics. Help improve the patient's condition and improve his relationship with the outside world.
More successful treatment occurs only at a young age. The older a person becomes, the more difficult it is to treat him.
