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Borderline Personality Disorder is considered a personality disorder by DSM-IV, or, as first described as by Schmideberg in 1959, as a disorder of character. The name comes from the observation that Borderline Personality Disorder people have natures on the border between neurosis and psychosis. However, this is a misnomer for now psychiatrists do not believe that there is an underlying psychosis anymore. Simply put to have Borderline Personality disorder is to simply be emotionally unstable. Going into more detail, it is characterized mainly by a tendency to act impulsively without consideration of the consequences, a lack of ability to plan, and instability with interpersonal relationships, self-image, and thinking patterns. It is estimated that people with Borderline Personality Disorder makes up 2% of the general population, 10% of all mental health outpatients, and 20% of psychiatric inpatients. 75% of those diagnosed are women and 75% have been physically or sexually abused. When diagnosing Borderline Personality Disorder, psychiatrists look for five or move of the following symptoms as determined by the DSM: Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment.
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