Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) #borderline-personality-disorder

Why there's no stand-up about BPD—and the premise that helped me move forward For the last 18 months or so, I've been studying Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Not as a clinician, but as...

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-5 as a personality disorder marked by pervasive instability in interpersonal...

'Loving Someone with Borderline Personality Disorder' is a book that explores the complexities of relationships involving individuals who meet the diagnostic criteria for Borderline Personality...

Love bombing is an overwhelming early display of affection, attention, and flattery deployed to bind a target quickly — a pattern observed in both Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and...

Trauma bond is a powerful, addictive emotional attachment formed through cycles of intermittent abuse and reinforcement — a dynamic observed across Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and...

Discard is the phase of a Cluster B relational cycle in which the abuser abruptly withdraws, ends the relationship, or treats the partner as though they no longer exist — typically without warning or...

Mirroring is the adoption of another person's interests, values, mannerisms, and personality traits as one's own — a pattern observed in both Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Narcissistic...

Gray Rock Method (also spelled grey rock) is a communication strategy in which a person deliberately becomes as uninteresting and unresponsive as possible to avoid triggering emotional escalation —...

Emotional hemophilia is a metaphor describing the absence of an internal emotional "clotting" mechanism — where small psychological wounds produce disproportionate, prolonged pain — a pattern...

Gaslighting refers to a form of psychological manipulation in which an individual causes another to doubt their own perception, memory, or reality. The term originates from the 1938 play Gas Light...

Black and White Thinking is a cognitive distortion in which people, situations, or self-concepts are perceived in rigid extremes, such as entirely good or entirely bad. Also called Splitting or...

Quiet BPD is an informal subtype of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) in which the characteristic emotional intensity is directed inward rather than outward — resulting in a presentation that is...

Shame spiral is a self-reinforcing cycle of intense shame that escalates beyond the triggering event, consuming a person's entire sense of self — a pattern that drives many of the most destructive...

Parentification is a role reversal in which a child is compelled to function as the emotional or practical caretaker of a parent — a dynamic commonly observed in families where a parent has...

Emotional dysregulation is the inability to modulate the intensity, duration, or expression of emotional responses — a defining feature of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) that underlies nearly...

Fawning is one of the four trauma responses — alongside fight, flight, and freeze — characterized by compulsive people-pleasing, appeasement, and self-erasure to prevent conflict or abandonment....

Identity diffusion is the absence of a stable, coherent sense of self — a hallmark trait of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) that manifests as rapid shifts in values, goals, career paths,...

Abandonment sensitivity is an intense, often overwhelming fear of being left, ignored, or rejected — whether the threat is real or imagined — that functions as a core driver of Borderline Personality...

Radical acceptance is a core Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) practice of fully acknowledging reality as it is — without resistance, judgment, or attempts to change it — even when that reality is...

The Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) Glossary is a collection of terms used in understanding BPD dynamics, patterns, and therapeutic frameworks — for those navigating these relationships or...