Caring roles Many people with BPD feel emotions deeply and find working in a caring role fulfilling. If you are an empathetic person, consider jobs such as teaching, childcare, nursing and animal care.
It is certainly possible to have BPD and success in education and employment. In fact, many maintain strong careers when able to control BPD symptoms. On the other hand, some people with BPD have trouble with their career in which some are unemployed, underemployed or unhappy in their jobs.
Effects of BPD symptoms
An employee or coworker with BPD may be a good worker when not overwhelmed by their symptoms. However, the effects of BPD symptoms can vary with different workplace situations, affecting job performance and the ability to “fit in” with the work environment.
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.
Disruptions at Work
But it's not just common sense. It's been confirmed in recent studies by Director of Outpatient Psychiatry at Rhode Island Hospital Mark Zimmerman, M.D., that those diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and Bipolar Disorder have a harder time holding employment.
It is possible to have career success when you're not overwhelmed by your symptoms. But the effects of BPD can vary in different workplace settings, affecting your job performance and your ability to "fit in" with your co-workers.
You don't have to tell your boss that you have BPD, but some people find that being transparent actually improves relationships at work. You may find it easier to explain your mood swings and impulsive behaviours or ask for help when you need it.
People with BPD often struggle with unstable relationships, managing behavior, and even their own self-image, all of which can interfere with the daily activities and responsibilities that work requires.
From the two studies that assessed employment status as a dichotomous variable (i.e., employed or unemployed), we can cautiously conclude that approximately 45 percent of patients with BPD remain unemployed at follow-up.
The Social Security Administration placed borderline personality disorder as one of the mental health disorders on its disabilities list. However, you'll have to meet specific criteria for an official disability finding. For example, you must prove that you have the symptoms of the condition.
People with borderline personality disorder (BPD) tend to have major difficulties with relationships, especially with those closest to them. Their wild mood swings, angry outbursts, chronic abandonment fears, and impulsive and irrational behaviors can leave loved ones feeling helpless, abused, and off balance.
While those with BPD are often highly intelligent and creative, symptoms can impair their learning and daily functioning in school. A student impacted by BPD may have a significantly more difficult time than a typical teenager managing relationships, academic pressures or anxiety.
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.
Splitting is a psychological mechanism which allows the person to tolerate difficult and overwhelming emotions by seeing someone as either good or bad, idealised or devalued. This makes it easier to manage the emotions that they are feeling, which on the surface seem to be contradictory.
Follow up studies of people with BPD receiving treatment found a borderline personality disorder treatment success rate of about 50% over a 10-year period. BPD takes time to improve, but treatment does work.
While there is no definitive cure for BPD, it is absolutely treatable. 1 In fact, with the right treatment approach, you can be well on the road to recovery and remission. While remission and recovery are not necessarily a "cure," both constitute the successful treatment of BPD.
Do Those Suffering from BPD's Regret Breaking Up? Although BPD personalities initiate a break-up as a way of seeking validation, because of the intense anxiety at play, they'll often express intense regret because of their abandonment wounding, especially if they're not met with the response they desire.
Over time, many people with borderline personality disorder (BPD) overcome their symptoms and recover. Additional treatment is recommended for people whose symptoms return. Treatment for BPD may involve individual or group psychotherapy, carried out by professionals within a community mental health team (CMHT).
To evaluate crying behavior, we used a set of specially designed tools. Compared to non-patients, BPD patients showed the anticipated higher crying frequency despite a similar crying proneness and ways of dealing with tears.
Notorious killers Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy were diagnosed with APD. Dahmer was diagnosed with BPD, a disorder characterized by impulsivity, mood swings and problems forming interpersonal relationships — thus making it hard to feel empathetic.
BPD in particular is one of the lesser-known mental illnesses, but all the same it is one of the hardest to reckon with. (Some people dislike the term so much they prefer to refer to emotionally unstable personality disorder.)