Borderline Pesonality Disorder: Case Study of Lorna - Essay Example

Borderline Personality Disorder: A case study of Lorna Case Summary This section of the study will cover behaviour aspects that Lorna exhibited due to her borderline personality disorder with reference to psychological theories. Borderline personality disorder is a disease condition in which the victims experience a long term pattern of turbulent or unstable emotions on self and others. An individual suffering from borderline personality disorder experiences low self esteem, unstable relationships, and impulsive behaviour which begins at an early stage of adulthood. Lorna, in her case, study experienced panic attacks and mood swings. Lorna was afraid of rejection by her friends when she was finally diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Although she could keep her condition to herself for sometime, she had a series of feelings and behaviours she did not really like. According to her, she never had a real feeling of content or happiness inside. She asserts that she could feel temporarily happy, excited, aggressive, angry, depressed, loving, empty, charitable, extremely sad, obsessive, hopeless, jealous, confused, and worthless among other low esteem feelings. She says she could feel any of those at any time and they lasted shortly before her moods changed. Lorna has a problem dealing with minor issues and relaxing sometimes. The only feeling she experiences for a little bit longer is anxiety. This condition makes her switch from a good emotion to another in an instant. To her, everything is black or white. For instance, Lorna could switch from liking someone so much to the greatest dislike towards the same person just through a single incident (Bockian, 2008). This makes her moan about various things. No one takes notice of her even if she has something that really means much to her. She craves for attention and generally feels needy in relationships although she has no one in particular that she really trusts. She, therefore, puts on a smile to other people outside her family to make her feel somehow better but ends covering a lot of things in her. Apart from doctors, counsellors and therapists, she has no one to talk to, she feels miserable inside, and wants to shout and cry sometimes. She feels people do not understand her which may lead to a possible lose of friends or damage to her relationships. However, Lorna says she has a boyfriend who practically understands all this. Therefore, this paper seeks to describe the psychological behaviours exhibited by a victim of borderline personality disorder in connection to the theories of psychology (Linehan, 2010). Evaluation Borderline personality disorder is associated with various behaviour aspects. For instance, in the case study of Lorna, she never had a real feeling of content or happiness inside. She explains that she could sometimes feel temporarily happy, excited, aggressive, angry, depressed, loving, empty, charitable, extremely sad, obsessive, hopeless, jealous, confused and worthless among other feelings. Lorna could experience any of those emotions at any particular time and they were brief (M., 2008). She could switch from a bad to a good emotional feeling instantly. In the process of evaluating this case study, we will link and see the connection between borderline personality disorder and the Freud’s psychosexual development theory. This section will then relate the theory to the behaviours exhibited by the victim (Lorna) of the borderline personality disorder. According to Freud’s theory of psychosexual development, personality is something that develops via a series of stages in childhood during which energies of seeking pleasure becomes focused on particular erogenous sections. This is actually a behaviour driving force. A healthy personality results only when these stages of psychosexual theory of development is successfully completed (Marsha, 2009). Fixation, persistent focus on an earlier stage of psychosexual development, can take place in case some issues were not resolved at the right stage. Individuals may remain stuck at a certain stage if fixation does not take place adequately. This might be the case resulting into this borderline personality disorder. The experiences felt inside may often cause the victims to have chaotic relationships and take impulsive actions. This is exhibited in the case study of Lorna where she has panic attacks, mood swings, and strenuous relationships with friends forcing her to put on a happy face just to cover up her feelings (Millon, 2009). Borderline personality disorder is associated with various other behaviours connected to the Freud’s psychosexual development theory. The causes are not definite, but elements like family and social factors are suspected. Some of the factors that connect the theory and the disorder resulting into the exhibited behaviours by the victims are things like disrupted family life, sexual abuse, abandonment in adolescence or childhood, and poor communication within the family. An evaluation of the borderline personality disorder shows that it majorly occurs in women and psychiatric patients who are hospitalized. The victims of borderline personality disorder are mostly not sure about their identities, their interests and values may change swiftly (Bockian, 2008). For instance, Lorna never knew actually what makes her moods swing and why she could like someone so much and switches to dislike the same person a lot. She also craved for attention and realized people could not notice her even if she had something that means much to her. People suffering from borderline personality disorder also look at things in extremes, good or bad. Their views and opinions on people changes quickly (Linehan, 2010). They may look at a person up today and after an incident, they look down on the same person. This is evident on the emotional switches Lorna had on people. The sudden shifts in feelings mostly lead to a turbulent and unstable relationship with friends and family. Just like other personality disorders, borderline personality disorder is diagnosed with focus on the psychological evaluation and the severity and history of the exhibited behaviours and symptoms. Among the behaviours felt by Lorna, an individual may also feel the fear of abandonment by friends and family, frequently displaying inappropriate anger, a feeling of boredom and emptiness, isolation and intolerance of remaining alone, impulsive with substance abuse, money, binge eating, sexual relationship or shoplifting, and repeated recurring acts of self injury and crises like overdosing and wrist cutting among others (Rosenbaum, 2008). These behaviours are justified by the Freud’s psychosexual development theory in such a way that there might have been failure in personality development in the beginning like if the victim was earlier abandoned in his or her childhood, he or she might have developed self isolation and intolerance to be alone. The Freud’s psychosexual development theory hence accounts for most of these behaviours exhibited by the victims because of failure to develop fully through the stipulated stages of performing fixation where development did not occur fully or substantially (Marsha, 2009). The borderline personality disorder involves typically a bizarre degree of unsteadiness in the mood, splitting or white and black thinking. This disorder manifests in devaluation and an idealization episodes of unstable and chaotic self image, interpersonal relationships, behaviour and identity; and even the disturbance in the sense of self of and individual, like in the case study of Lorna. This is directly connected and associated with the Feud’s psychosexual development theory where an identity and personality of the sense of self is developed in stages of psychosexual developments. These are actually evident in the Lorna’s case study, she has a problem dealing with trivial issues and relaxing sometimes. Anxiety is the only thing she can feel for somehow longer (Marsha, 2009). Her condition makes her switch from best emotion to worst in a flash and everything is black or white in her view. This according to the theory is splitting, where a victim of borderline personality disorder switches between demonizing and idealizing other people. This behaviour together with the swinging moods may strain the relationships with friends, family and co-workers. In some cases, self injury and harm like suicidal attempts may also be exhibited as a result of disturbances resulting from borderline personality disorder (Rosenbaum, 2008). The name of the disorder itself is stigmatizing as it may be translated as terminal, hence adverse behaviours are likely to be exhibited by the victims. Most mental health specialists have associated the borderline personality disorder with a manipulative and hard on others kind of behaviour. This behaviour has been traced to the inner turmoil and pain, defensive and powerlessness reactions and limited communication and coping skills. This has even led to some self harming and suicidal behaviours resulting from the victims. For instance Lorna felt like she should just cry and let go everything (Blais, 2008). The primary features of borderline personality disorder that are connected with the Feud’s psychosexual development theory include affective distress, turbulent interpersonal relationships, low self esteem and image, and marked impulsivity. According to the psychosexual development theory of Feud, A healthy personality results only when these stages of psychosexual theory of development are successfully completed. Therefore failure of the same may also result to these features hence the connection between the theory and the disorder. There is also an experience of frequent long lasting strong state of adverse tension that is usually initiated by perceived failure, rejection or being alone (Bockian, 2008). These were practically shown in the Lorna’s case study where she never wanted to inform anyone of her condition due to her fear of rejection and abandonment. The victims may indicate some changeability between anxiety and anger or depression and even volatile sensitivity to stimuli considered emotive. In Lorna’s case study, what she could feel for long duration among her series of changing feelings was just anxiety. Lorna had a self destructive feeling, lack of identity, feelings of fragmentation and sense of victimization due to her condition, this made her very sensitive to the way other people like friends and family would treat her. This is one reason she wore a happy face even in her sad moments and grief. Although her feelings about others could shift from positive to negative extremes, she tried to cover up the situation. She had her self image rapidly changing as well between the extremes and this led her feel like shouting or crying to let the whole thing go. These are conditions directly linked with the Feud’s psychosexual development theory and connected in the sense that the victim shows signs of impulsive behaviours as discussed in the previous paragraphs (Marsha, 2009). Impulsive is a common word used to describe people with borderline personality disorder. Pervasive instability as discussed in the previous paragraphs is experienced in the victim’s emotions, interpersonal relationships and self image. This disorder is connected to the Feud’s psychosexual development theory in which development takes place in stages from childhood. The theory justifies the behaviours of the victims in that the disorder itself occur mostly in the early childhood when there is an unstable pattern involved in interacting with other people closely related to one’s self image for many years in their early social interactions. This pattern may be present in various settings such as home, workplace, church, school among others. It is mostly accompanied by labiality in an individual’s feelings and emotions. This makes the relationships shallow (Rosenbaum, 2008). The failure of early psychological development may be responsible for this, hence the connection between the theory and the disorder. Due to the disorder, just like Lorna in her case study, a person may exhibit behaviours such as efforts to avoid imagined or real abandonment, disturbance of identity, a pattern of intense relationships with friends, impulsivity, instability in the emotions, repeated suicidal character, terminal emptiness feeling, stress related, transient paranoid thoughts and intense anger which is in most cases inappropriate. These are things that are justified by the feud’s psychosexual development theory (Linehan, 2010). As a summary of the evaluation part of the case study of Lorna, it is important to note that a person suffering from borderline personality disorder often has low self esteem, turbulent relations and impulsive behaviour that begin in the early adulthood. A very common feature of this disorder is the fear of rejection and being left alone. This is evident in the Lorna’s case study since she was willing to cover things up and not tell anyone about her diagnosis just because she had a feeling of rejection by others. She did this to hold on to her friends and family. The disorder is also characterised by overwhelming feelings of anxiety, distress, anger or worthlessness (Millon, 2009). These are some of the emotions that Lorna experienced in her case study. She also had difficulty in managing small issues, difficulty in sustaining close and stable relationships and even had periods of loss of reality contacts. According to the Feud’s psychosexual development theory, these are behaviours that develops due to failure to go through the development stages successfully and then no fixation is done as a result. It is obvious that most personality disorders begin in adolescence and carry on to adulthood. The cause may be a harmful experience during childhood when one is undergoing through the development stages as stipulated in the Feud’s psychosexual theory of development and genetic reasons. This shows that the disorder and the theory are linked and directly connected hence justifies the behaviours of the victims. The noted behaviours due to failure in undergoing the development stages and the borderline personality disorder are majorly emotional instability and impulsive behaviour (Bockian, 2008). Recommendations In this section, the doctors and therapists are directly addressed to take action and help in treating the victims. Just like Lorna contacted a therapist who diagnosed her with the disorder, individuals should seek the services of dialectical behavioural therapy and group therapy which can effectively help in treating this disorder. The treatment involves long term psychotherapy with a therapist who is a specialist and has experience in that type of personal disorder (Bockian, 2008). The patient should be allowed to talk about the past and the present difficulties when getting treatment and the therapist should remain accepting, non-judgemental and empathetic with the victim. The Feud’s psychosexual development theory is a justification of the cause of this disorder. Therefore it should be taken with keen interest to allow self development through the same stages of development highlighted in the theory (Rosenbaum, 2008). The feelings that majorly result into this disorder had been discussed in the evaluation section, but majorly abandonment and lone feelings are the causes. The risk factors can however be traced from family and genetic factors of the individuals. It is therefore potentially important and useful to address the behaviours of the victims because of the nature of the impact of those behaviours. Some of them are impulsive and may lead to self injury. The feeling of abandonment may lower one’s self esteem and destroy the personality of an individual to the extent of loosing self identity (Millon, 2009). References Bockian, N. (2008). New Hope for People with Borderline personality Disorder. New York: Three Rivers Press. Linehan, M. (2010). Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder. New York: Guilford Press. Blais, M. (2008). Personality and personality disorders. Philadelphia: Elsever. Marsha, L. (2009). Cognitive-behavioral treatment of borderline personality disorder. New York: Guilford Press. Millon, T. (2009). Disorders of Personality. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Rosenbaum, J. (2008). Massachusetts General Hospital Comprehensive Clinical Psychiatry. Philadelphia: Elsever. Read More