For people with this condition and those closest to them, interpersonal relationships can be difficult. Expert recommendations.
According to a guideline for the treatment of patients with TLP from the American Psychiatric Association (2002), approximately 2% in the general population live with this condition which is characterized by a instability in mood and interpersonal relationships, with inappropriate and very intense anger, self-harm and impulsive behavior, including frequent suicide attempts, irritability, impulsivity, irascibility and aggressiveness.
This entire list of characteristics to understand why it can be difficult for them to relate and why those around them tend to distance themselves.
“Personality disorders are diagnosed with certainty until adulthood, when the characteristics of the subjects’ way of being have been consolidated; However, there may be signs from adolescence,” explained Ingrid Vargas Huicochea, an academic in the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health of the Faculty of Medicine of the Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
However, relating, despite the complexity, is not impossible. Experts from they highlight that Adequate resources must be available to establish one of the things a person with this diagnosis needs most: healthy boundaries.
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Here are other tips that these experts provide to keep in mind when socializing and/or living with a person who has a borderline personality disorder:
- Try to avoid qualifiers for his behavior. In a person with BPD, “error signaling” is particularly accentuated when receiving feedback. This occurs because not only do they doubt their relationships, but they also do so with their own identity with constant questioning about capabilities, strengths, and so on. If you must make an assessment, it is best to do so from how you felt about the process, speaking in first person.
- Anticipate a possible crisis. In this case it is important that you learn to know and identify those actions or triggers in the person, also that you can Communicate to him about what you feel is coming, so that he makes a faster self-identification and this avoids certain escalations of conflict.
- In common agreement, establish how to stop an argument. In a moment of calm, agree with him or her on a protocol that you should resort to to stop an escalation of conflict. It is ideal that there is a reassessment after a shock episode that helps them provide critical feedback. of what they have managed appropriately.
- Express everything you disagree withand allows the person to express themselves too, yes, from assertiveness.
- Highlight achievements and changes. We have the habit of highlighting and observing, most of the time, negative details or those that hurt us, the invitation is to recognize and validate the efforts the person makes (with BPD or not) to modify their behavior patterns.