Borderline Personality Disorder Treatment

People with borderline personality disorder often struggle with strong emotions and difficulty maintaining stable relationships. Below are some common signs, symptoms and behaviors often linked to BPD that suggest a need for borderline personality disorder treatment:

• Strong fear of real or imagined abandonment, leading to attempts to avoid being left alone. This fear can make individuals feel uncomfortable in relationships and become overly dependent on others.
• Unstable personal relationships are characterized by rapidly shifting emotions, such as intense closeness followed by sudden anger or distrust.
• Self-perception frequently changes, resulting in confusion about life goals, identity, or personal values. This instability can contribute to a constant sense of feeling empty or like something is missing.
• Impulsive and sometimes risky behaviors, including reckless driving, substance misuse, binge eating, or unsafe sexual activity. These actions may also cause people to feel guilty or regretful.
• Self-injury or suicidal thoughts and behaviors, which are often tied to extreme emotional distress. A history of a prior suicide attempt is common among individuals with BPD.
• Episodes of feeling numb or disconnected from oneself, sometimes referred to as dissociation, which can be triggered by stress or overwhelming emotions.
• Frequent and dramatic mood swings, making it difficult to maintain stability in daily life.
• Difficulty managing anger, often leading to angry outbursts or aggressive behavior.
• An increased risk of developing co-occurring disorders, such as eating disorders, depression, or anxiety, which can intensify symptoms over time.

Not everyone with borderline personality disorder shows all these behaviors, but many experience several of them over time. Symptoms of this mental health condition usually begin in adolescence or early adulthood.

If you or someone close to you has borderline personality disorder, several options to treat BPD can help manage and improve. Below are some common approaches:

Talk Therapy

According to The Cleveland Clinic, talk therapy (sometimes referred to as psychotherapy treatment) is a common type of borderline personality disorder treatment. It allows people to explore their day-to-day struggles in a structured setting. A therapist helps patients notice negative thoughts and patterns of self-destructive behavior that may lead to abrupt mood changes or unstable relationships.

Long-term psychotherapy with mental health professionals can also address other related conditions, such as anxiety, that often appear alongside borderline personality disorder.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), dialectical behavior therapy (sometimes written as dialectical behaviour therapy) is a main treatment for BPD. It helps individuals control intense emotions like anger or sadness.

Patients learn skills such as mindfulness, distress tolerance, and emotion regulation, which can reduce destructive behaviors like self-harm or suicidal behavior. This therapy was created specifically to treat BPD symptoms. It teaches patients to pause before they react. The goal is to build healthier relationships and emotional predictability. 

Schema-Focused Therapy

Schema-focused therapy helps patients identify and change thought patterns that perpetuate impulsive behavior and low self-worth, often dating back to early childhood. Mental health professionals use this method to reconstruct harmful “schemas” – beliefs about oneself or the world – that may contribute to borderline personality traits. 

Over time, people develop healthier ways of interpreting events, improving their self-image and interacting with others.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT is often used in a treatment plan for BPD and other personality disorders. It helps patients explore how disruptive thoughts affect their reactions. It also teaches them new problem-solving skills to replace impulsive or damaging habits.

CBT helps individuals break cycles of self-sabotage and see more positive outcomes in their daily lives. 

Individual Therapy, Group Therapy, and Family Therapy

Individual therapy offers one-on-one attention for those with borderline personality disorder (BPD). A therapist helps patients understand their mental health issues and find ways to improve their coping skills and overall quality of life.

Group therapy provides social support and shared learning experiences with others facing similar struggles. Family therapy helps loved ones understand the condition and learn new ways to interact with their loved ones without unintentionally triggering conflict. 

These borderline personality disorder treatment methods can help patients feel less isolated and help family members support their loved ones more effectively. 

Transference-Focused Psychotherapy

This approach addresses a patient’s unresolved feelings and experiences from their past that they direct toward the therapist, reflecting their difficult real-world relationships. 

By working through these interactions in a safe clinical environment, patients gradually improve emotional predictability and build healthier ways to relate to others.  

Systems Training

Systems training involves teaching individuals how various areas of their life – work, family, social circles – influence borderline personality disorder symptoms. By exploring how each “system” interacts, patients gain awareness of triggers and practice coping skills to improve relationships and reduce the chances of damaging behavior.

Mentalization-Based Therapy

Mentalization-based therapy (MBT) helps individuals with borderline personality disorder become more aware of their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in the moment. This tends to lead to healthier relationships and reduces destructive behaviors like self-harm.

Research suggests that this type of borderline personality disorder treatment can have lasting effects, including fewer hospitalizations and suicide attempts after treating BPD.

Treatment helps individuals with BPD learn to control their symptoms and develop healthier coping strategies for everyday life.

Finding a treatment center for BPD or other mental health disorders can feel overwhelming. Here are some things to consider when you’re looking for the right facility:

• Look for official licensing or accreditation, which indicates that the borderline personality disorder treatment facility meets certain standards for safe, high-quality care.
• Check the staff’s qualifications and experience treating borderline personality disorder and similar conditions.
• Ask about the types of therapy offered, such as dialectical behavior therapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy, or CBT, and whether individual, group, or family sessions are available.
• Ask about the facility’s environment and whether they offer inpatient treatment, outpatient treatment, or both.
• Confirm insurance coverage or explore payment plans so you can focus on getting help instead of worrying about unexpected costs.
• Contact Mental Health Resource so we can help you find the right facility for you or your loved one.

By taking these steps, you can find a supportive place that can help you recover and lead to an improvement in your quality of life.

Managing BPD symptoms on your own can be overwhelming. They can cause a lot of stress, and it’s also a condition that a lot of people don’t understand, sometimes leading to shame and confusion. This makes help from mental health professionals so important. By learning to handle intense emotions, individuals often find it easier to maintain relationships and reduce behaviors that may harm themselves or others. 

If you or someone you care about is struggling to control intense emotions as a result of BPD, help is available. Contact Mental Health Resource today to learn more about borderline personality disorder treatment options. Call (888) 546-0087 or complete our online contact form to speak with one of our mental health professionals.