Briefly describe the personality disorder you selected, including the DSM-5- TR diagnostic criteria.

Briefly describe the personality disorder you selected, including the DSM-5- TR diagnostic criteria.

To begin with, I selected borderline personality disorder (BPD). This disorder is

characterized by an intense fear of abandonment, impulsivity, and instability in interpersonal

relationships, to name just a few (Avramchuk & Hlyvanska, 2018). Notably, BPD is mainly

common in women; however, it can also occur in men, but women have a historically higher

prevalence. This intense fear of abandonment happens even when there is no real threat and

may lead to unsafe or unwise behavior, such as suicide. Besides suicide, BPD patients also

engage in self-harm activities to cope with the fear of ‘abandonment.’

According to the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria, for one to be diagnosed with BPD, one

must have a persistent pattern of unstable relationships, self-image, and emotional

dysregulation (Smith & MacDougall, 2020). Besides that primary test, patients must also

exhibit at least five of the following symptoms, which must be persistent; desperate efforts to

avoid abandonment which is actual or imagined; unstable relationships, impulsivity leading

to self-harm behavior; persistent feelings of emptiness, rapid changes in mood and emotions,

temporary paranoid thoughts, recurrent suicidal thoughts to name just a few.