Get Answers on Petulant Borderline Personality Disorder
Petulant Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a condition that causes intense mood swings, emotional instability, outbursts, and feelings of being unloved. For people living with petulant BPD, it can be impossible to have healthy relationships, both in the workplace, in their social life, and at home.
If you have found our resource on the topic, you or someone you love may already be familiar with how disruptive this condition can be! But a coordinated program of support can help to lessen symptoms, and allow those afflicted with this form of BPD to achieve meaningful improvement.
At Catalina, we understand that our clients suffering from mental disorders often feel alone and that the symptoms associated with petulant BPD can make it especially hard to keep people in your life. It can feel difficult or even impossible to triumph over the battle in your head every day, even once you’ve identified it as a problem.
Read our whole article for a better understanding of how Catalina Behavioral Health provides evidence-based treatments for a diagnosis of petulant BPD and get options to start healing: yourself, your relationships, and your life!
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What is Petulant Borderline Personality Disorder?
Petulant BPD is a subtype of borderline personality disorder. Borderline personality disorders are characterized by intense feelings of abandonment, impulsive thoughts and behaviors, and emotional instability.
For individuals with petulant BPD, severe mood swings, emotional outbursts, unstable relationships, and feelings of being unloved or unworthy of love are the most common identifying symptoms.
The 4 Accepted Subtypes of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
One of the more accepted descriptions of the BPD subtypes comes from Theodore Millon. His four subtypes include:
- Self-destructive BPD- This subtype is characterized by a person having a negative relationship with themselves. They may hate themself and rely on external sources to find the reassurance they need, especially another person. If this external source doesn’t fulfill their need for comfort, they engage in self-harming behavior. This could include substance abuse, risky behavior, making suicidal threats or attempts, or other types of self-harm.
- Discouraged BPD- Individuals with this BPD subtype are very clingy and needy. They engage in passive-aggressive behavior but cannot regulate emotions when they perceive they are being abandoned, often causing angry outbursts.
- Impulsive BPD- This subtype’s main feature is impulsive behaviors. This could include substance abuse, suicidal attempts, risky behaviors like driving dangerously without a seatbelt or risky sex, and general problems with impulse control.
- Petulant BPD- Individuals with this subtype fluctuate between feelings of being unloved or unworthy and bouts of explosive anger. They struggle with relationships because they are possessive, subject to passive aggressiveness, and feel compelled to control or manipulate others. Individuals with petulant BPD may also struggle with gambling, substance abuse, and other problems.
Looking Closer at the Typical Symptoms of Petulant BPD
Petulant BPD is a chronic mental health condition. Like other personality disorders in the DSM-V (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) it is characterized by difficulty controlling one’s emotions, impulsive behaviors, and an intense fear of abandonment.
There are nine diagnostic criteria and an individual must meet nine of them. However, some of the symptoms people with petulant BPD experience include:
- Self-doubt and lack of confidence
- Sulking or acting resentful when they don’t agree with things
- Feeling unloved or unworthy of being loved
- Intense emotions, including angry outbursts
- Lashing out, crying, or yelling when overstimulated
- Being happy then sad, suddenly and without an obvious cause
- Feeling insulted or disrespected by others after small gestures that are often misinterpreted
- Using passive-aggressive behavior to manipulate people into doing what you want
- Feeling like the world is out to get you
- Pessimism and a negative outlook on life
- Experiencing irritability when things aren’t going your way
- Feelings of worthlessness or self-hatred, caused by turning angry feelings inward
- Manipulating people in your life
People with petulant BPD experience many of these symptoms, however, borderline personality disorder is unique to the individual. Many of these symptoms can be eased with a combination of medication to treat symptoms and dialectical behavior therapy.
What Causes Petulant Borderline Personality Disorder?
Currently, borderline personality disorder does not have a known singular cause. It is thought to be influenced by trauma, biological factors, genetics, and environmental factors. Some research also supports the idea that parenting styles during early childhood contribute to the petulant subtype of BPD.
Authoritarian parenting is critical and harsh. These parents are easily disappointed and have rigid rules and boundaries their children are expected to follow. Permissive parenting can also influence whether a child will develop BPD later in life. Without rules or expectations, this “hands-off” style of parenting leaves children feeling unloved and unwanted.
Is Petulant BPD Common?
Petulant BPD is one of the more common subtypes, with around 20% of people treated for borderline personality disorder having the petulant subtype.
However, only around 1% of the overall population is diagnosed with BPD, but this still adds up to millions of people suffering from borderline personality disorder symptoms in the US alone!
How is Petulant BPD Diagnosed?
You’ll need to schedule an appointment with a psychiatrist to receive a formal diagnosis of petulant borderline personality disorder. They will ask a lot of questions about events in your life, both current stressors and past traumas, medical history, family genetics and relationships, and previous mental health treatment.
Then, they’ll use guidelines from the American Psychiatric Association to arrive at an accurate diagnosis. If you feel you have not been diagnosed correctly in the past or would like a clinical assessment from a mental health professional on our staff, please reach out to Catalina directly.
How Does Petulant BPD Impact Your Life?
As a mental health disorder characterized by negativity, emotional outbursts and instability, and chronic feelings of low self-esteem, petulant BPD takes a major toll on relationships. Poor relationships at work can make it hard to maintain a job.
Furthermore, explosive anger, unstable moods, and emotional dysregulation make it impossible to have healthy relationships. People with petulant BPD symptoms often feel the world is working against them and have trouble trusting the people in their lives.
This can affect friendships, familial relationships, and romantic relationships. Individuals with petulant BPD can also be abusive toward partners without treatment. They are also at risk of developing other types of mental illness.
Borderline Personality Disorders and Relationships
Petulant BPD symptoms tend to make maintaining healthy relationships nearly impossible. If you are struggling with petulant BPD, anger, feelings of low self-esteem, passive-aggressive behavior, mood instability, and impulsive behavior all contribute to struggles in intimate relationships.
You may also go to extreme lengths to avoid abandonment, including self-destructive behaviors and threatening harm to yourself.
For an overall look at borderline personality disorders of all kinds, our BPD test offers an informal assessment that can provide insights into your condition.
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Ways of Treating Petulant BPD Effectively
Sometimes, medications used to treat mental illness may be used to manage the symptoms. Certain medications may be able to help manage mood swings, emotional outbursts, and depression.
However, these are only to manage certain symptoms and will not relieve all the symptoms of petulant BPD. The best course of mental health treatment for petulant BPD also involves therapy.
When to Consider Inpatient Treatment for BPD
One of the problems people with petulant BPD face is that they do not trust the world around them. They may resist treatment, accuse their therapist of making things worse, or feel like the mental health professionals they are working with are against them.
Inpatient treatment for mental health may be beneficial in cases where a person with petulant BPD is a danger to themselves or others. While individuals with the petulant subtype are less likely to act on suicidal thoughts than individuals with self-destructive BPD, they still may act on self-harming behaviors during times of significant distress.
If you are reading this article and thinking of self-harm, or your loved one has verbalized such a desire, please reach out directly to the *988 helpline for immediate support and stabilization.
The Most Effective Therapies for Petulant BPD
Individual therapies used for the treatment of petulant BPD include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy.
During cognitive behavioral therapy, you’ll work with a therapist to identify negative/unhelpful thought patterns. As you get in the habit of changing and challenging these thought patterns, rather than accepting them to be true, it changes your thinking. This is especially useful for managing thoughts regarding distorted self-image and interpersonal relationships.
During dialectical behavior therapy, you’ll work with a therapist to develop skills including mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness. All of these can be most beneficial for healing your relationships.
Finally, during eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy (EMDR) may be useful for you if you are struggling with petulant BPD as a reaction to traumatic memories. Other therapies that may be used depending on an individual’s specific symptoms include family therapy, group therapy, neurofeedback, somatic therapy, and holistic treatments.
Can You Manage Petulant BPD with Medication?
There currently are no FDA medications approved for treating borderline personality disorder or its subtypes. Medication may be prescribed to help manage BPD symptoms though, including antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, and antidepressants.
However, people with petulant BPD typically need intense behavioral therapy to treat their BPD and improve their quality of life.
Natural Supplements That Could Help with BPD
Researchers have observed low levels of vitamin D and magnesium in BPD patients. Low levels of magnesium are linked to worsening symptoms of BPD and other mental health conditions. Vitamin D is especially helpful if you struggle with depression, suicidal thoughts/attempts, or self-harm as part of your BPD.
Supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids has also been linked to improved BPD symptoms. Omega-3 fatty acids help with impulsivity, behavior control, and depressive symptoms which are part of the typical petulant BPD diagnosis.
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Get Proven Support to Overcome Petulant BPD at Catalina
The sudden, intense nature of the mood swings and outbursts associated with petulant BPD can make it hard to hold a job, maintain friendships, and develop a healthy romantic partnership. It can also make it hard to get help when you have BPD, because you may feel alone or like the world is against you. Catalina Behavioral Health can support a new way of life.
You should know that it is never too late to get help with a petulant borderline personality disorder. Things can and will improve with therapy and the right support to improve symptoms and make life easier.
Call our team at Catalina today and get our programs of support in your corner today!
