First, the condition is described. Linehan is in line to explain the 5 areas where people with BPD are unable to regulate themselves, as others do:
1. Emotional. It is the main area of ​​deregulation for these people. In fact, the other 4 kinds of deregulation resulting from extreme and rapid emotions experienced, making its reactions are unpredictable. Many times they are judged not to have the minimum of self that everyone seems to have; but if you begin to consider this feature as a feature of its operation, rather than as an error on their part, or they do not put enough interest in control, can the people around them begin to feel some resentment within .
2. Interpersonal. People with BPD desperately want to have sex and are frightened with the possibility of losing them. The reality is that in the end, many people are abandoning them. Their fears are not unfounded. From the outside, it seems difficult to understand that to continue doing the things that make people stay away from them. However, it is often because they do not really know how to act within a relationship. When you join a lack of interpersonal skills to emotional deregulation, the result is a chaotic interaction with others.
3. Behavioral. It is what makes acting impulsively and repeatedly without seeming to learn from the consequences negativasl. Anything that jumps to mind and reduces uncomfortable emotion, okay. Since impulsive behaviors reduce their discomfort with the passage of time become automatic responses to emotion, that is, engage in impulsive behavior even before experiencing the painful emotion in full and without making decisions consciously. The problem is not who do not learn from their mistakes, but the drive to reduce the discomfort is stronger than anything else.
4. Loss of sense of self. They often lack a sense of what they like, what their values ​​or who they are. Your emotions, perceptions and behaviors are changing as they do not have a sense of continuity and consistency of themselves.
5. Cognitive. "But what were you thinking?" Is a question you have probably heard many times. The answer is that certainly is not thinking the same way as others. First, they often have great difficulty in controlling their attention. Since emotions interfere with the ability to concentrate, have difficulty concentrating. Another important feature is that cognitive level in the middle of an emotional chaos, can have very extreme thoughts, sometimes reaching paranoia.
And all these are interrelated patterns: people feel very strongly these emotions and not know how to regulate them, so sometimes they make desperate and impulsive acts to relieve; but the result can they lead to rejection by others and, as they have difficulty paying attention to the important stimuli and learn from their mistakes, can react attacking again, leading to self-fulfilling prophecy that people move away from them. Neglect causes them more pain and confirms its sense of lack of self-worth. Without a sense of self, the person drifts, trying to get new partners, new jobs, new friends to see if someone or something fits with them and help them to define who they are.