People who fall in cluster B disorders category are highly unidentifiable. Cluster B disorder types are known for creating and cultivating a false persona throughout their life. Even many people who have cluster B disorders don’t even know that they are suffering from some kind of personality disorder. They are known for dramatic, emotional, and erratic behavioral aspects. People with Borderline Personality Disorder is one of the 4 personality disorders that fall under the category of cluster B. They tend to experience unstable, intense emotions and extreme mood swings which can shift quickly within a fraction of seconds which makes them feel like a hot air balloon.
According to Psychology, the reasons for this disorder are still unknown and completely not proven. Many researchers believe that it occurs due to traumatic experiences in childhood. People with borderline personality disorders will experience difficulties in handling their relationships. They do not or hardly believe that there is something wrong within them. In fact, they may not appear to be bothered much at all due to it. In other words, their personality traits do not appear to be causing them any distress; meanwhile, they are causing distress to everyone around them. While some people can recognize it easily, some people don’t and stay the same throughout their life. In fact, most of them who can’t recognize will not believe they have a personality disorder until they consult a psychologist.
These are the 7 tell-tale signs that are very useful in identifying a borderline. Please note that having one or two among these signs will not confirm you as borderline, however, if you got more matching, then please be considerate to consult a psychologist.
1. Black & White Thinking
People with Borderline Personality Disorder tend to see the world in either black or white, which means they treat everything as all-good or all bad. To them, if a thing is not good then by definition it’s all bad, there is no middle ground at all. They apply this to judge others and to themselves as well.
2. Frequently changing life goals
As they possess all-good or all bad black and white thinking, they tend to create an unstable sense of self which makes them inconsistent. They can frequently change careers, relationships, life goals. These radical changes occur without any warning. We can observe this type of behavior in children, they sometimes want to become an astronaut, sometimes a firefighter and sometimes even a superhero. It looks cute if they say it, but what if you heard them from a grown up? As they don’t possess a strong sense of self, they just want to become the person who they idealize for a brief period of time. Hence, they change their life goals frequently.
3. Self Doubts & Humiliating Apologies (Lots and lots)
People with borderline personality disorder traits will not be able to tell if they were being mistreated or just overreacting to a situation. They can’t able to assess it clearly even though they got hard evidence right in front of their eyes which shows they were mistreated badly. This makes them fall prey for selfish people or people who possess narcissistic tendencies. One of the chief complaints people have for those with Borderline Personality Disorder is the over-sensitivity, twisting words, making things up entirely and blame shifting. Even though they got mistreated by others. People with Borderline Personality Disorder often wonder, if they are the instigator – the “wrongdoer”? in the first place which makes them apologize all the time even though it’s humiliating. Normal people won’t give apologies when they find it’s humiliating, buy borderlines do it without even thinking. They have a tendency to do everything really fast and feel bad about it later.
4. Fear of Abandonment
For borderline disordered people, Nothing in this world is more fearful than being abandoned. Especially from the people whom they consider as dearest to their heart. If they sense any kind of Abandonment from their loved ones, people with BPD goes to either full on rage mode or constant begging. They just use both depending on the situation. You can see a person behaving as a roaring lion and a helpless cat at the same time when you encounter a Borderline Personality Disorder. They generally have a hard time calming down once they become upset which make them clingy all the time.
5. Eating Disorders & Reckless Driving
Every Borderline possesses these habits, either they eat too much or less than the actual amount that is nearly required for a day. Some borderline people even consider themselves fat even though they are in good shape. Eating disorder is a part of it and it fluctuates with the mood of the person. Sometimes they eat too much whenever they feel stressed, while they never eat anything. Another harmful behavior is being reckless, borderlines are major reckless drivers, they do it often whenever they feel devastated or being abandoned.
6. Self-mutilation & Suicidal Tendencies
This one trait is not common in all borderlines. Nobody wants to self-mutilate themselves even the people who got borderline disorder as well. But, you can observe that at some point in their life many people who got borderline personality disorder really wants to end the chaos in their life by either self-mutilating or by ending their life. If you see, the suicide rate in borderlines is quite high. They possess self-sabotaging behavior whenever they feel depressed.
7. Over the top thinking and never-ending assumptions
Even supercomputers can’t compete with borderline’s thinking. They have a tendency to see everything microscopically. On top of it, they assume everything and no one will understand how they came to that assumption. They just assume everything in their mind and act according to it.
