What it's like to love someone with borderline personality disorder?

Caring about someone with borderline personality disorder (BPD) can be difficult. At any given time, your loved one may struggle with emotional regulation, low self-esteem, intense mood swings, and a persistent fear of abandonment.

Can a person with borderline personality disorder feel love?

Fact: People with BPD are capable of giving and receiving love. People with BPD have a lot of difficulty in relationships, but that doesn't mean they're incapable of love.

What makes a BPD feel loved?

One person told us they felt loved whenever they had their picture taken. Another felt loved when they got any sort of attention — good or bad. One person said that being asked to rate their mood on a scale of one to 10 made them feel validated and secure.

Do people with BPD love hard?

But there is another quality displayed by many borderline individuals that is often left out of the diagnostic picture: individuals with borderline personality disorders can also love intensely, although somewhat erratically and egocentrically.

Do borderlines fall out of love easily?

People with BPD are often terrified that others will leave them. However, they can also shift suddenly to feeling smothered and fearful of intimacy, which leads them to withdraw from relationships. The result is a constant back-and-forth between demands for love or attention and sudden withdrawal or isolation.

What It's Like to Love Someone with BPD | VALERIE PORR

Why do BPD hurt the ones they love?

Often, the borderline person is unaware of how they feel when their feelings surface, so they displace their feelings onto others as causing them. They may not realise that their feelings belong within them, so they think that their partner is responsible for hurting them and causing them to feel this way.

Do borderlines love their favorite person?

Borderline Personality Disorder

However, because of the nature of this condition, the favorite person connection may sometimes swing between extreme love and attachment, to a strong dislike. This switch may occur when the person with BPD perceives that their emotional needs aren't being adequately met.

What is the average length of a BPD relationship?

Results found in a 2014 study found the average length of a BPD relationship between those who either married or living together as partners was 7.3 years. However, there are cases where couples can stay together for 20+ years.

Do borderlines ever forgive?

These results suggest that patients with BPD report becoming more accepting and forgiving over time. Additionally, recovery status is significantly associated with increasing time in these states.

Is it a good idea to date someone with BPD?

Anyone living with BPD can still lead satisfying lives and take pleasure in long-term relationships and even life partnerships. With the proper treatment and support, people with BPD can and do have healthy and happy relationships.

What are the positives of loving someone with BPD?

More than others, your partner with BPD may be especially good at delighting you with spontaneous adventures and surprises. Many people with BPD enjoy being with others and making them laugh. Their high energy and spontaneous nature make being with them a great pleasure.

What is the BPD friendship cycle?

“A BPD relationship cycle refers to a repeating, continuous series of highs and lows in a relationship,” explains Tabitha Cranie, a retired MD from St. Petersburg, Florida. “First, everything feels good, uplifting, and safe — they might think of you as their favorite person.”

Are BPD relationships toxic?

Often, the person with BPD will react towards loved ones as if they were the abusers from their past, and take out vengeance and anger towards them. When the person with BPD feels abandoned, they can become abusive or controlling as a way to defend against feelings of abandonment or feeling unworthy.

How does BPD show up in a relationship?

People with BPD often have patterns of intense or unstable relationships. This may involve a shift from extreme adoration to extreme dislike, known as a shift from idealization to devaluation. Relationships may be marked by attempts to avoid real or imagined abandonment.

Do borderlines feel remorse?

Only remorse leads to a real apology and change. One of the hallmarks of people with Borderline Personality Disorder or Narcissistic Personality Disorder (BP/NP) is that they often do not feel truly sorry. Even though a BP/NP may say he or she is sorry, there is often something lacking.

How to detach from someone with borderline personality disorder?

How do you make a BPD relationship last?

Can a person with BPD revalue someone after devaluing them?

Yes absolutely. But not in all cases. If you're in a position of being devalued, initially you must have been in a position of being valued.

How do you make someone with BPD feel loved?

What triggers BPD rage?

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.

Do borderlines crave attention?

People with BPD may often have dramatic, emotional, erratic, and attention-seeking moods. This behavior is severe enough to cause problems with family and work life, long-term planning, and sense of self.

How do BPD react to breakup?

People with BPD may be sensitive to rejection and abandonment and are prone to splitting, rage, and impulsivity. If a person with BPD feels rejected or abandoned, they may end the relationship. However, this is usually followed by significant anxiety and regret and efforts to get back together.

Why is it so hard to be in a relationship with someone with BPD?

How does BPD affect romantic relationships? Some of the more common symptoms of BPD — like self-worth issues, intimacy and trust difficulties, mood swings, and more — can be understandably damaging to a romantic relationship.

Do BPDS care what other people think?

They take your different opinion as a criticism of their opinion if you don't feel the same way. In this way, they actively resist empathy because it makes them feel defective. Another challenge to sufferers of BPD symptoms with regard to empathy is that many experience emotional dysregulation.