Briefly describe the personality disorder you selected, including the DSM-5-
TR diagnostic criteria.
To begin with, I selected borderline personality disorder (BPD). This disorder is
characterized by an intense fear of abandonment, impulsivity, and instability in interpersonal
relationships, to name just a few (Avramchuk & Hlyvanska, 2018). Notably, BPD is mainly
common in women; however, it can also occur in men, but women have a historically higher
prevalence. This intense fear of abandonment happens even when there is no real threat and
may lead to unsafe or unwise behavior, such as suicide. Besides suicide, BPD patients also
engage in self-harm activities to cope with the fear of ‘abandonment.’
According to the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria, for one to be diagnosed with BPD, one
must have a persistent pattern of unstable relationships, self-image, and emotional
dysregulation (Smith & MacDougall, 2020). Besides that primary test, patients must also
exhibit at least five of the following symptoms, which must be persistent; desperate efforts to
avoid abandonment which is actual or imagined; unstable relationships, impulsivity leading
to self-harm behavior; persistent feelings of emptiness, rapid changes in mood and emotions,
temporary paranoid thoughts, recurrent suicidal thoughts to name just a few.
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