Clinically Reviewed by Ami G. Risinger, LPC-MHSP
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious mental illness, typically requiring both medicines and skills acquired in psychotherapy for its successful management. Since its main characteristic is emotions blown out of proportion, it´s important to understand what triggers a person with borderline personality disorder to try to avoid it or be ready to help. One way of helping is by seeking professional help.
BPD can be successfully managed with the help of experienced professionals at Time Wellness Chattanooga mental health hospital. We would like to introduce you to the topic of what triggers a person with borderline personality disorder so you can manage your condition more easily or know when to seek help from others.
Understanding Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
People with borderline personality disorder (BPD) experience emotions that can become intensely and often unpredictably magnified. They can easily switch from being extremely happy and energetic to feeling sad, confused, or tired. Depending on the type of BPD, people can experience different episodes. So-called manic episodes (abnormally elevated or irritable moods that last at least a week and impair functioning) occur in every type of this disorder. Still, while some experience a depressive episode after it, some do not have such experience.
Separations, disagreements, and rejections, whether real or perceived, are the most common triggers for symptoms of bipolar disorder. Recognizing what triggers a person with borderline personality disorder is important for both the person suffering from the disorder and their environment, especially those who have some sort of relationship with the person.
While managing this condition is the responsibility of the person affected, their friends, partners, and family can make an effort not to be part of what triggers their loved one. This is what makes learning about what triggers a person with borderline personality disorder so important.
What Triggers a Person with Borderline Personality Disorder?
The primary answer to the question of what triggers a person with borderline personality disorder would be a sense of abandonment or a sense of rejection. These feelings, however, can occur in a variety of situations. Here is to name a few:
- Interpersonal relationships. This connection can create many situations in which one believes they are being abandoned or rejected. Something as simple as not answering your partner´s message immediately can signal they are not important enough, creating exaggerated emotions.
- Emotional distress. Minor incidents or any sort of criticism can be seen as a threat. Being criticized, in particular, can create feelings of rejection for not being ¨good enough¨ and lead to intense anger or sadness.
- Stressful events or experiences. Losing a job, going through a divorce, or even just being in a chaotic environment can contribute to feeling abandoned by significant others, colleagues, or even the entire world. While this causes negative emotions in everybody, people with BPD might have them magnified.
- Self-image and identity insecurities. Experiencing self-doubt or insecurity can lead a person with BPD to perceive abandonment and rejection even where it doesn´t exist. Furthermore, conflicts over personal identity and values can feel like an auto-rejection, creating an array of intense negative emotions.
Coping Strategies for Managing Triggers
Arguably, more important than discovering what triggers a person with borderline personality disorder is learning to manage overwhelming emotions once they appear. A person struggling with BPD has a few strategies to consider:
- Practicing mindfulness helps you feel grounded and connected with the world around you. Whether it´s mindful meditation, yoga, or another technique, the aim is always to identify triggering thoughts or feelings and let them pass through you without judgment.
- Journaling or other forms of tracking emotions help you discover patterns in your behaviors, which can lead to discovering triggers and ways you managed to deal with them and identifying potential strategies for managing the impact of said triggers.
- Building healthy, supportive relationships leads to confidence in partners, ensuring a less exaggerated emotional response or a more mature approach to clearing things out. Healthy relationships also imply setting boundaries to protect emotional well-being.
- Getting professional support means you get to explore and analyze your maladaptive behavior and manic and/or depressive episodes, as well as underlying thoughts and feelings patterns. Moreover, you get to develop healthy coping mechanisms. This, of course, requires consistency, emotional investment, and regular check-ins.
Seeking Treatment for BPD in Chattanooga
Knowing what triggers a person with borderline personality disorder does not necessarily mean you know how to manage those triggers. Also, it might seem like you found your way around them, but your coping mechanisms might be maladaptive. In either of those situations, seeking professional personality disorder treatment in Chattanooga is the way to go.
You will want to seek a therapist or a facility with staff specialized in BPD or in psychotherapies proven to be effective for borderline personality disorder. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and dialectic-behavioral therapy (DBT) are excellent approaches for skills and healthy mechanism development. They help break dysfunctional thinking patterns and change maladaptive behavior into adaptive behavior. They also allow you to abandon a black-and-white mindset and learn to accept things you can´t change.
Practical Tips for Starting Treatment
Now, when you have discovered what triggers a person with borderline personality disorder and you are aware you need professional help, you might feel like you don´t know where or how to start your treatment. Here is a simple way to go about it:
- Schedule your first appointment. For mental health counseling in Tennessee, contact Time Wellness and schedule your first meeting with one of their therapists. You can prepare for this encounter by considering what preceded your last episode and what you wish to achieve with therapy.
- Consider practical aspects of treatment. Check the details of your insurance plan to make treatment less financially challenging. For instance, with Blue Cross Blue Shield mental health coverage, you can expect your treatment to be partially, if not fully, covered.
Seek Help for BPD
Learning what triggers a person with borderline personality disorder and then developing mechanisms and strategies to manage them or their impact is what makes borderline personality disorder bearable and manageable. It´s usually not easy doing this alone, but fortunately, there are treatment options in Chattanooga. Call Time Wellness Tennessee and inquire about our approaches and methods to support your recovery and well-being.
