According to the DSM-IV Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is as follows:
Diagnostic criteria for 301.83 Borderline Personality Disorder
A pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:
(1) frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment.
Note: Do not include suicidal or self-mutilating behavior covered in Criterion 5.
(2) a pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation
(3) identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self
(4) impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, sex, Substance Abuse, reckless driving, binge eating).
Note: Do not include suicidal or self-mutilating behavior covered in Criterion 5.
(5) recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior
(6) affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphoria, irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days)
(7) chronic feelings of emptiness
(8) inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights)
(9) transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms.
Although there is a diagnostic criterion for borderline patients themselves, the people they afflict throughout their lifetimes remain hidden from the light. Children of borderline mothers fall into this group of "see no evil; hear no evil." I have chosen to write this blog to further enlighten not only myself but also others who may suffer from the same circumstances I have only just escaped. For instance, the day my mother informed me how much she loved me involved my initials (along with the initials of my siblings and father) being carved into her skin with a razor blade. I did not witness the act but I was summoned shortly after she had successfully engraved her love into her arms, waist and legs. In a hushed tone she asked, "Adrienne, do you know why I do this?" to which I replied no. She set down the razor, dripping with every movement. As she leaned in the words "Because I love you" trickled into the air and destroyed my feeble 10-year-old mind.
This is a borderline mother. This is hell. Welcome to it.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth Edition. Copyright 1994 American Psychiatric Association, "Borderline Personality Disorder". BehaveNet® Clinical Capsule™. August 10, 2010
