Borderline Personality Disorder and Addiction
What if you experienced your worst fear nearly every day of your life – the fear that others will abandon you completely? This fear is so large and intense that it takes over your relationships, your personal goals, your everyday behaviors, your life. This is the reality of borderline personality disorder.
What Are The Symptoms Of Borderline Personality Disorder?
A personality disorder is diagnosed n a person has rigid inflexible patterns of thoughts and behaviors that cause continuous problems in the their life. These patterns are long lasting and difficult to change. in particular, someone with borderline personality disorder has an enormous fear of abandonment. They swing between intense feelings of anger and rage to desperation and anxiety. They also have a tendency toward impulsive aggression, self-injury, and suicide attempts. Anyone in a relationship with such a person will tell you it’s like riding an exhausting emotional roller coaster all the time. Borderline personality disorder is three times more common in women in men.
How Would a Borderline Personality Disorder Addict Look to Family and Friends?
Family and friends would already know their loved on has lots of trouble with unstable relationships. Everything becomes about drama and unpredictability. They would also notice that the symptoms would become worse with alcohol and drug use.
How is Borderline Personality Disorder Treated?
Borderline personality disorder is frequently treated with a combination of antidepressants and regular mental health counseling. The specific style of counseling that is most helpful is called Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. This approach helps persona with borderline personality disorder build emotional and social skills. The emphasis is on accepting and adapting to change, accepting things as they are right now.
How Does Borderline Personality disosrder Interact With CDrugs and Alcohol?
Most people with borderline personality disorder use drugs and alcohol to escape the strong emotional pain they feel every day. In their world, there is a constant threat of abandonment and no one can be really trusted. Persons with this disorder often use drugs and alcohol in erratic unpredictable ways. They often abuse strong medication prescribed for their persistent anxiety. Their overuse of medication then becomes its own problem.
What Kind of Drug Treatment is Available for Borderline Personality Disorder?
Treatment for borderline personality disorder and addictions must be sensitive to close ties between borderline symptoms and addictive behavior. Intense anxiety leads to drug and alcohol use, symptoms become worse (especially impulsvity), confrontation about substance abuse leads to panic, which often leads to drug-seeking behavior. There must be strong healthy drug-substitutes put into place, knowing that the borderline symptoms are persistent and predictable.
Dual diagnosis treatment at The Canyon is second to none. Their treatment model covers the difficulties of both addiction and mental health disorders. The professionals at The Canyon use a holistic approach that addresses a person’s physical and emotional needs. Dual diagnosis is The Canyon’s specialty. Read more about The Canyon’s unique approach to drug rehab for individuals with co-occurring disorders on their main website.
Your Issues
We want to know what you’ve been through. Have you been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder? Did you ever use drugs or alcohol to escape your problems? Do you have a loved one with borderline personality disorder that you are concerned about?
Tags: addiction, borderline personality disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder and Addiction, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, personality disorder
I have a 43-year-old son who has borderline personality disorder and a drug addiction. His drug of choice was cocaine, but I believe he is now using heroin. He is a needle user and is in very bad shape. His apartment looks worse than a hoarder’s home, and he hasn’t taken the trash out in two years. He is to be evicted any day now. We did an intervention the end of January, which failed. To make a long story short, he lost his job due to his refusal to go to treatment. They are holding it for him if he goes to treatment, but he refuses. He will be on the street soon and will also lose his phone. We are holding steady in not giving in to his demands, but I believe things are getting worse. Are there any suggestions on how we should handle this matter? Thank you.
Please contact a counselor at The Canyon today, Nancy. They can discuss with you the details of your situation and help you to decide what your next step should be.
Hi. My husband is a marijuana user. but when he out he is a completely different person incapable of show affection and also cannot have normal conversations or problem facing issues. He accuses me of irrational things. We had had episodes of aggressive fights, both. I suffer from depression but I think he makes me feel useless and belittle me when he’s not high he hates me, but when he’s on drugs he is another person, rational “normal”, fun lovely and enthusiastic.As I said when he’s is like a men I’ve never met angry and resentful, controller and hurtful. My depression has gotten worse because these fights I get emotional and confused ( this is been for 3 or 4 years and Im about to give up). He don’t want to accept he has problems with drugs. He’s very difficult to calm until he gets his next doses. Im sure I collaborate with the conflict but he gets out of place…kind of a child that never wants to come to an agreement…Im soo confused! is that BLD?? He wont look for any help. what to do?
Caroline, please contact us directly (phone or email) if you would like to discuss the specifics of what you and your family need.
I am a 28-year old addict/alcoholic suffering from borderline personality disorder. I am in a state of crisis and I have no idea how I am going to make it through this. I unsure if I should share specifics, I only know that I am in serious trouble and am both unsure and.afraid of what actions to take. Could someone please offer some guidance? I don’t have words nor presence of mind to express the urgency of my situation. Thank you in advance (please help).
Hi Kate, we will have someone get in touch with you very soon. We care about what you’re going through and we want to help. If you ever need it, our helpline is always open at 877-714-1319.
I am the classic guy with saviour/hero complex who thought he could ‘save’ redeem a recovering heroin addict woman in methadone programme, who i later found had BPD. I fell in love with this beguiling woman. I believe in redemption second chances and I really wanted to love and be loved. I experienced the rollercoaster the yo-yo the eggshells the verbal abuse the mind games the sense that the closer I got the further she withdrew in paradoxical fear of the very intimacy she craved. It came to a head when she cut herself after an argument. By this time we were married (still are but separated). She had threatened suicide overdose and taken knives, when in a state of heightened emotional imbalance and disproportionate rage,from the kitchen on at least 5 occasions I had to disarm and restrain her. In some strange way this was the reassurance she needed to show her that I wasn’t going anywhere and that I still cared enough to stop her harming herself!!! The bizarre logic!! So when she finally cut herself, not seriously (thank God!), with scissors I was in shock then horrified and went to the web. The first thing that popped up when I mentioned actual self harm was BPD and as read on and investigated further it was amazing it described her perfectly all the projecting and gas-lighting, irrational accusations and drama. Of course Im no saint and with heinsight I wish I had the skills to cope and to help her more, to be patient and strong enough to give her what she needed to sustain her, to lift her up on the wings of a pure undying love, but in reality, the wounding stings, after upto 6 hours of her ranting, I would snap and debase myself and her with verbal abuse in retaliation. I thought well I will show her in a Pavlovian way, that the louder she shouts the more I can shout in the hope that she would realise that it is foolish to awaken volcano or to stand in front of a bulldozer. This was a terrible mistake and I regret it. I then moved onto restraint silence and patience, using breathing techniqes even when she eviscerated me with verbal attacks, also using repeated logic and reasoning and when provoked to a point where I could not cope, leaving the tiny apartment to get some fresh air to escape confrontations. She accused me of physical abuse so often that I even started to think I might be an abuser. She had been abused by a previous BF and my sister was being abused in her marriage, so I began to have some kind of imposter complex and to get drawn into this expert web of deceit as I even doubted myself and I began to lose self esteem in a catastrophic manner. When your chosen one your beloved your (you thought!) soul mate accuses you of such terrible acts you see yourself reflected in a way that has no bearing on your reality and it plays with your mind in a very damaging way! I ballooned in weight and tried marriage therapy but the rants continued until I tried trial separation & then finally when she hit me in the face and kicked me one day, I just left and asked for divorce. She asked to stay on so I let her have 6 months cooling off period and when I tried to reconcile she turned savagely on me, triggered by some trivial side issue,it all exploded in my face. She left as suddenly as she had arrived in my life. We will have to go for round 3, which is the actual divorce and I guess that will be another terrible journey? I still love her miss her greatly despite all this! She is beautiful intelligent kind funny witty and such a wonderful person on her good days but they became less and less until we were arguing every 3 days by the end. No time for healing, affecting any sense of possible intimacy in the relationship. In fact from the moment of actual self harm I could not bring myself to be intimate with her. What I think was the issue is that I married wanting kids and could not imagine the mother of my kids taking a knife to her flesh.