What is "borderline personality disorder"?

What is "borderline personality disorder"?

Rhoda Hahn (Psychiatrist) gives expert video advice on: Who is at risk for borderline personality disorder?; What are the treatments for borderline personality disorder? and more...

If I could use one word to describe boarderline personality disorder, it would be the word unstable. These patients have unstable sense of self, unstable relationship, unstable moods, they are very impulsive. I think another characteristic commonly seen in these patients are that they would do almost anything avoid feeling abandoned. The abandonment doesn't have to be real, it can be imagined. The hallmark of the disorder, or what people most frequently know about it, they tend to be quite self-destructive, and self-mutilation is relatively common.