Mood stabilizers for borderline personality disorder (BPD) can be effective in reducing BPD symptoms, particularly emotion dysregulation and impulsivity symptoms.
Common anticonvulsants and mood stabilizers for BPD include: Depakote (valproate) Lamictal (lamotrigine) Lithobid (lithium)
Although no drugs have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration specifically for the treatment of borderline personality disorder, certain medications may help with symptoms or co-occurring problems such as depression, impulsiveness, aggression or anxiety.
Coping skills for BPD are often centered around learning to manage moments of emotional instability and/or control anger. Some techniques to help in these situations could include: Using stress-reduction techniques, like deep breathing or meditation. Engaging in light exercise, like walking or yoga.
Take a warm shower or bath. Play music that relaxes you. Engage in a physical activity. Do brain teasers or problem-solving activities.
Auditory hallucinations and paranoid delusions seem to be the most common psychotic symptoms in patients with BPD. Much effort has been made to better distinguish between psychotic symptoms in BPD and those that occur in psychotic disorders, most notably schizophrenia.
Consider cutting out all processed food and sugar for a few weeks and observe your energy level and your emotions. Avoid misusing alcohol or caffeine, as these also can intensify mood instability. BPD sometimes includes symptoms of self-harm or substance abuse.
How do mood stabilizers work? Mood stabilizers work by decreasing abnormal activity in the brain. These medications can help reduce mood swings and prevent manic and depressive episodes.
Because antidepressants have not demonstrated significant high-level evidence of therapeutic benefit, these medications currently lack strong recommendations in treating BPD. Serotonin regulates amygdala hyperreactivity in BPD, thought to be a central neurobiological correlate of affective instability.
First-line treatment for BPD is psychotherapy [5-7]. Psychotropic medications are used as adjuncts to psychotherapy, targeting specific BPD symptom clusters. Adjunctive use of symptom targeted medications has been found to be useful [8].
SSRIs that have been shown to help with anger include citalopram (Celexa), fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline (Zoloft), among others. Sertraline seems to have the most supporting data.
Mood stabilisers are a type of psychiatric drug. They are licensed to be used as part of the treatment for: bipolar disorder. mania and hypomania.
Intense and highly variable moods, with episodes lasting from a few hours to a few days. Chronic feelings of emptiness. Inappropriate, intense anger or problems controlling anger. Feelings of dissociation, such as feeling cut off from oneself, observing oneself from outside one's body, or feelings of unreality.
Lithium inhibits inositol production6, so some researchers reasoned that BPD might be linked to excessive signalling by over-active neurons, and that lithium worked by calming these cells.
Your doctor may offer you mood stabilisers if you have an episode of mania, hypomania or depression that changes or gets worse suddenly. This is called an acute episode. Some people need to take mood stabilisers as a long-term treatment to stop this from happening.
Once your symptoms are under control, you will be encouraged to continue to take mood stabilizers for at least six months and probably longer. How much longer varies from person to person. Mood stabilizers can help prevent further episodes of mania or depression.
Separations, disagreements, and rejections—real or perceived—are the most common triggers for symptoms. A person with BPD is highly sensitive to abandonment and being alone, which brings about intense feelings of anger, fear, suicidal thoughts and self-harm, and very impulsive decisions.
Deep passion. People with BPD strongly desire a deep connection with those around them. This is partly because of their fear of abandonment but because they simply love people and crave deep connections. As a result, people with BPD tend to be very passionate partners.
The most common BPD triggers are relationship triggers. Many people with BPD have a high sensitivity to abandonment and can experience intense fear and anger, impulsivity, self-harm, and even suicidality in relationship events that make them feel rejected, criticised or abandoned.
Individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPDs) become overwhelmed and incapacitated by the intensity of their emotions, whether it is joy and elation or depression, anxiety, and rage. They are unable to manage these intense emotions.
When stressed, people with borderline personality disorder may develop psychotic-like symptoms. They experience a distortion of their perceptions or beliefs rather than a distinct break with reality. Especially in close relationships, they tend to misinterpret or amplify what other people feel about them.
There's also a lot of anecdotal evidence from other people's experiences that suggest 2-4 years is more common. So, if you want to know how long your relationships might last if you have BPD, it really does depend on the intensity of your condition.