What causes sudden panic attacks? Where does unreasonable fear come from? Sometimes borderline personality disorder manifests itself in this way. Fortunately, it is treatable. The main thing is to recognize the symptoms in time.
Elena suffered from excruciating panic attacks. The attacks lasted from a few seconds to half an hour. They arose unpredictably and completely unsettled. This prevented her from fully living, working and communicating. She was ashamed of herself. Usually sociable, Elena began to shun people and abandoned her former hobbies.
Panic attacks began in adolescence. By the age of 30, Elena could not hold on to any job for more than a few months, the marriage was on the verge of collapse, there were almost no friends left.
The doctors diagnosed him with borderline personality disorder. Elena didn’t look like a typical patient with this disorder at all. She had a latent form of the disease.
Here are a few symptoms of borderline disorder in its latent form:
1. The desire to maintain relationships at all costs. Elena would never leave her husband, despite the problems in marriage. From childhood, she felt abandoned by her parents and, in her youth, fell in love with the man she married.
2. Unstable and emotionally tense relationships in the family. This was primarily manifested in the relationship with the mother. She insulted and humiliated Elena. The daughter stopped communicating with her mother after another SMS with insults, and two weeks later, as if nothing had happened, she went shopping with her. Elena suppressed resentment and irritation.
3. Distorted ideas about yourself. When Elena was little, her mother repeatedly sent her to participate in beauty contests. Such events form unhealthy ideas about one’s own body. Elena decided that if she was attractive in appearance, she would not have to deal with emotions and feelings. Because of this, she suppressed anger, grief, shame, guilt, and sadness for many years.
4. Impulsivity and self-destruction. Elena did not deny that she was abusing alcohol and drugs. She was prone to uncontrolled spending, self-harm, overeating. Bad habits followed each other. If she managed to stop abusing psychotropic drugs, she immediately began to spend money uncontrollably. Having overcome the habit of combing her skin, she began to «seize» stress. Methods of self-harm constantly changed.
5. Regular suicide attempts. At first glance, Elena did not have suicidal intentions, she denied such thoughts. However, she had drug overdoses. Her long-term tendency to self-harm and dangerous behavior was so strong that such actions can also be called covert suicide attempts.
6. Severe anxiety, depression or irritability. As a child, Elena was taught that unpleasant emotions — anxiety, irritation, anxiety — should be ashamed. Since she was not allowed to show such feelings openly, she hid them. As a result, panic attacks arose, and in adulthood, digestive problems were added.
7. Constant feeling of inner emptiness. Even when things were going well for Elena, she felt dissatisfied. She began to spoil the mood of others, unconsciously tried to express a feeling of inner emptiness. However, this met with such fierce resistance from her husband and other relatives that she preferred to simply hide her feelings from everyone.
8. Outbursts of anger. Elena claimed that she almost never gets angry. In fact, she was taught from childhood that anger should not be shown. Anger accumulated over the years, and sometimes there were unexpected outbursts. After she felt ashamed, she again resorted to self-harm, overeating or alcohol.
9. Paranoid thoughts. The process of examination by the doctor caused Elena such horror that she dropped everything several times and then started again. She had thoughts bordering on paranoia. She was afraid of the reaction of relatives, the condemnation of others. And most of all — that everyone will leave her.
10. Symptoms of dissociation. Sometimes Elena seemed to “fall out of reality”, it seemed to her that she was looking at herself from the side. Most often, this happened immediately before the panic attack and immediately after it. Before going to the doctor, Elena did not tell anyone about this, she was afraid that she would be considered abnormal.
Both overt and covert borderline personality disorder are treatable. Psychotherapy helps many patients: dialectical behavioral therapy, schema therapy, psychological education. When Elena realized what was really happening to her, the panic attacks subsided, and over time, psychotherapy helped her learn to better cope with emotional experiences.
Nipa onkọwe: Kristin Hammond jẹ onimọ-jinlẹ imọran.