Are You Riding the Roller Coaster of Overwhelming Emotions?
You might be feeling like you just can’t seem to get your emotions and behaviors to a “happy place” that can simply co-exist with the rest of your body in peace. You know this isn’t the way that you want to live, but you may not even know what to call it. “Is it Bipolar Disorder, or Borderline Personality Disorder?”
What is going on?!?
If this is you, you probably wish someone could help you understand why your mood swings from high to low, and more importantly, help you get off this roller coaster of emotions.
Borderline Personality Disorder
You may be experiencing Borderline Personality Disorder, also known as BPD. Only a trained clinician, such as I, can make the appropriate diagnosis. However, here are some things that might be helpful as you try to figure out if this might be the cause of your swinging emotions. If you have BPD, your moods will change often, sometimes moment to moment. For example, you might love someone and hold them on a pedestal, then seemingly the next minute you hate them and say nasty things about them. This can, of course, impact your relationships in a negative way.
Relationships
While relationships can also be affected negatively due to actions resulting from other conditions such as Bipolar disorder, BPD is typically affected by the erratic emotions bubbling from inside of the person suffering from it and the actions they take as a result. Those with BPD seem to get in their own way of getting close to others. In other words, they might pull away or tear someone down out of a fear of abandonment.
If you suffer from BPD traits, it is your internal perception of things that leaves you reeling. It’s not just your brain chemistry and mood, but it’s your interactions as a result of what you feel and believe. For instance, if you suffer from BPD, you may leave those around you wondering from moment to moment or day to day what may happen in the next second, next few hours, or next week. The relationship may feel unsteady as one is trying to avoid the emotional landmines that may go off without even knowing there was a trigger for the sufferer.
The intensity of BPD is all about the unpredictability of what is going on inside of you, how you experience those emotions and thoughts, and how you project them out into the world from the impact of your own internal needs, wants, and past hurts. As a result, if you have BPD, you may feel desolate inside, suicidal, or reckless.
BPD can even present with symptoms of intense anger that seems uncontrollable and impulsive. BPD is also often rooted in childhood trauma. It may also present as co-dependency and may sound something like, “I love you. I need you. I’ll do anything for you. Don’t leave me. Go away. Leave me alone. I hate you. You’re awful” all within a very short span of time. Often, there is no perceivable trigger that can even be identified by the outsider as to what has set it off.
If you have BPD, you might feel things very deeply and yet not actually be able to handle the intensity of the emotions. This might play out in self-harming behaviors like cutting or other self-mutilation, as an attempt to connect with one’s internal feelings as a result of the stress from both the outside world and the internal pendulum of the mood swings.
Treatment
As therapists, we actually specialize in treating those affected by BPD because we are pulling for my clients to have the full, rich lives that they deserve. When you work with us, our approach can help you to gain and practice coping skills to effectively manage the specific triggers that affect you. We can help you to develop the mental, physical, and emotional insight needed through the use of Dialectical Behavior Therapy to merge your thoughts, feelings, and body into better alignment for healthy self-management, and to encourage you in the pursuit of your purpose and identified goals along the way.
We want to hear your story, to provide you with the insight you seek on how you can effectively take steps toward your desired goals, and to give you practical ways in which to become the person you want to be with the least amount of stress and upheaval.
We will work together as a team to identify your natural strengths, areas where you could use some help, and a plan of action for how we will enable you to reach your goals. It’s not something that can be done without intentional practice and personal resolve, but it can be done, and I know that you already have the spirit of a warrior because you have been fighting the emotional battles for so long on your own already.
Let us be a part of your team and help you to conquer and manage your BPD symptoms with support as we work with your individual strengths to help you achieve your goals and walk in your wonderful and unique purpose.
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