Borderline Personality Disorder, Case Study Example

The main causal factor for Borderline Personality Disorder is temperament. This is described as the disposition of child from the instance of birth. These are the absolute aspects of a person’s personality that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. In many cases this is directly linked to an imbalance in certain brain neurotransmitters: specifically Dopamine, Serotonin, GABA, as well as Norepinephrine. These neurotransmitters are directly responsible for affecting mood, as well as emotion, and should this imbalance run genetically down the line of a patient, they are easily much more predisposed to developing a borderline personality disorder. Other environmental factors can include child abuse and emotional neglect.

Therapists find borderline personality disorder particularly difficult to treat because of the nature of the disorder in general. The symptoms that usually present with borderline personality disorder in and of itself makes it very hard to treat. Specific symptoms that make the disease particularly hard to treat for therapists is the manipulation and prone to lying that these patients present with. They generally are not receptive to treatment, and are often successful in manipulating mental health professionals into believing they are indeed complying with treatment. The inability of many of these patients to see the proverbial “gray area” makes them very hard to treat, even with psychotherapy. As a result of the symptoms that surround borderline personality disorder, therapists tend to walk on eggshells with their patients, not sure what exactly to believe and what is a product of manipulation. These often-intelligent patients are some of the most difficult to treat in the entire mental health community.