by Alastriona Ametza

Created on: December 01, 2008

The best thing you can possibly do for yourself if you are concerned you might have Borderline Personality Disorder is seek assistance. Do not risk diagnosing yourself and let me explain why please. Borderline Personality Disorder and Bi Polar Personality Disorder are very similar. Some questions you may ask yourself are:

Do you change your moods at the drop of a hat or do they last over several days?'

Do you have stormy interpersonal relationships?'

How do you feel when a relationship ends?'

Do you have a history of sexual abuse as a child that was over a long period of time?'

How would you rate your childhood in comparison to others?'

These are just some things you might consider before finding a therapist to help you diagnose the problems you are having. What you also might consider doing is developing a blog with a password on it and do it for a long period of time, say a solid month. Wait a week and go back and read it. See how you interpret your own emotional state.

If cost is an issue you can usual call your local health and welfare tell them you are seeking to find out if you have a Personality Disorder and usually they can refer you to a number for regional mental health and they have a sliding scale usually. What a sliding scale means is that it's judged on your ability to pay for services. They have therapists on staff that can help diagnose, treat, and medicate you as needed for your situation.

If you love someone that seems to have intensive abandonment issues, you may suggest the above and offer to take them to their first appointment to help them with therapy. Remember though you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink. If they aren't ready to accept that they need help then all you are going to do is add to their already survival level abandonment issues pushing to hard. Let them mention this to you.

It is hard having BPD and it's hard loving someone with it, it takes a great deal of courage to find your way to counseling for the sufferer and the greatest thing you can do for yourself is set firm personal boundaries with the person you love with this illness. They often feel very abandoned because they overwhelm many people because most people have trouble handling the depth of boundary violations that occur. They often violate other peoples space without even realizing it because they didn't have good boundaries set as a child for them. There is also a genetic component where they maybe more prone to emotional vulnerability. It takes a lot of patience for both people on both sides of the spectrum.

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