As stated by the DSM-V, the nine essential features of BPD are as follows: frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment, a pattern of unstable and intense relationships, identity disturbances with unstable self-image and sense of self, displaying impulsivity in at least two areas that are self-damaging, recurrent suicidal behaviour and self-mutilation, the display of affective instability, chronic feelings of emptiness, inappropriate or intense anger, and transient or dissociative symptoms when under stress (DSM-V). BPD, as well as many other personality disorders, share some feature of other mental disorder in the DSM-V. For example, the personality disorder obsessive-compulsive personality disorder shares some similarities to obsessive-compulsive
…show more content…
Each of the three authors experienced their BPD differently and found their own means of coping that were unlike one another. Melanie Green’s (2005) BPD symptoms included being depressed, anxious, obsessive-compulsive, mildly psychotic and inflicting self-injury on herself. She was hospitalized once per month on average in both local and state hospitals because of her self-harming behaviour, being described by a psychiatrist as “the number one utilizer of crisis services in the country.” (Green, 2005). Even when she had the help of a supportive nurse practitioner, Green was still struggling to have control of her tumultuous life, it was not until she was in a psychiatric consultation night before overdosing that she decided she needed change (Green, 2005). She did not want to spend half her life in hospitals and she did not want to be her illness anymore (Green, 2005). Through her support system and through her own perseverance she found a life outside of her mental illness, leaving people with the reminding those who are brought down by the weight of mental illness that there is more to their life and they deserve an opportunity to discover they are more than their mental illness (Green,
Each of the three authors experienced their BPD differently and found their own means of coping that were unlike one another. Melanie Green’s (2005) BPD symptoms included being depressed, anxious, obsessive-compulsive, mildly psychotic and inflicting self-injury on herself. She was hospitalized once per month on average in both local and state hospitals because of her self-harming behaviour, being described by a psychiatrist as “the number one utilizer of crisis services in the country.” (Green, 2005). Even when she had the help of a supportive nurse practitioner, Green was still struggling to have control of her tumultuous life, it was not until she was in a psychiatric consultation night before overdosing that she decided she needed change (Green, 2005). She did not want to spend half her life in hospitals and she did not want to be her illness anymore (Green, 2005). Through her support system and through her own perseverance she found a life outside of her mental illness, leaving people with the reminding those who are brought down by the weight of mental illness that there is more to their life and they deserve an opportunity to discover they are more than their mental illness (Green,