Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness Month
What is Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness month? In 2008, the U.S. House of Representatives declared May as Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness month. This is largely in part due to the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder’s efforts to educate others about the disorder and its impact; these efforts seek to empower those diagnosed while reducing stigma that surrounds the disorder. What is Borderline Personality Disorder? According to the American Psychiatric Association, borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a personality disorder characterized by “a long-standing pattern of instability in mood, interpersonal relationships, and self-image that is severe enough to cause extreme distress or interfere with social and occupational functioning” (APA, 2021). To meet diagnostic criteria, an individual must meet five of the following categories: frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment, a pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation, identity disturbance …