Adolescence is a period of huge changes which, in many cases, implies a crisis phase. The adolescent must reduce his/her psychological dependence on parents in order to regulate his/her self-esteem and to manage his/her behaviour and relationships. The adolescent needs to establish a clear understanding regarding his or her identity and values system.
Although adolescence is the period when BPD tends to appear, it is not always easy to detect it, or to tell it apart from typical behaviours of adolescent crisis, because they share many common elements: anxiety and depression, family conflicts, rebellious behaviour and identity and sexuality conflicts.
Risk of borderline personality disorder should be taken into account if intense and prolonged alterations are observed in the areas below:
- Affective: emotional deregulation, affective instability and chronic feelings of emptiness.
- Cognitive: alteration in identity, excessive distrust.
- Behavioural: impulsiveness, self-destructive behaviours, self-harm, thinking about, or attempting suicide.
- Interpersonal: unstable and intense relationships, breaking bonds, unreal fears of being abandoned.
Early detection is fundamental to improve the prognosis and help them develop a healthier and more satisfactory quality of life.