A brief guide to EUPD (emotionally unstable personality disorder)

N.B.  There is an easy read version at the bottom of this post (shorter and in bullet point form) along with an infographic and translations.

So I'm going to talk about a personality disorder called Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder (EUPD).  It was previously called Borderline Personality Disorder.  I have been given different diagnoses of complex PTSD and EUPD at different times, so I will talk about both of them at some point.  They overlap quite a lot so are often misdiagnosed, and sometimes people have both.  But I will focus on EUPD for today.

EUPD stems from a mixture of genetic and environmental causes (often some sort of trauma).  Its predominate symptoms are around emotional regulation and may include things such as a feeling of worthlessness, a feeling of emptiness or being numb, feeling overwhelmed by very intense emotions, feeling like you're still emotionally a child struggling in an adults body, feeling like you're a bad person or that you're not likeable, feeling like you don't know what you want from life or changing your mind frequently, feeling like the things that happen to you are your fault.  You may also feel like people are judging you or talking about you (may have paranoia) or will stop liking you if you are not 100% perfect all the time, like people do not understand you and you do not understand them, like people are either super nice or inherently untrustworthy, feeling like you want to be close to people but also can't commit that trust into close relationships, being terrified of the world and wanting nothing to do with it.

Behaviours can often include suicide ideation or actual suicide attempts, unhealthy behaviours such as binge eating, cutting oneself, or overspending (often to lift oneself out of a low), numbing out of emotions through the use of drugs or alcohol, shutting oneself away and cutting oneself off from the world (often when in a deep low), quitting things before completing them to avoid disappointment, changing jobs or hobbies frequently due to the frequent changing in values and likes, keeping very busy so there's less time to think.  It may also include avoiding getting too close to people for fear of rejection, lacking trust in people, having unrealistic expectations of people (becoming quite dependant on certain people's approval and validation), spending lots of time thinking and worrying about what other people may be saying or doing, trying to get reassurance from people that they like you or testing them, pushing people away in the believe that they will ultimately reject you, thinking the worst of every situation and everything people say that could be misconstrued, and constantly looking out for signs that people may reject you.  

So it is a case of very very disorganised emotional responses and reactions to things, particularly other people.  This can all make engaging in a fairly normal workplace and particularly social / family life really very tricky, though not impossible with understanding work colleagues and friends.  

That's all for today.  I'll talk about possible treatments / management at some point in the future.  Any questions, please ask.

Reference

Mind (2022). Experiences of BPD. [online] www.mind.org.uk. Available at: https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/borderline-personality-disorder-bpd/experiences-of-bpd/ [Accessed 17 July 2026].

Easy read

- EUPD or Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder was formally know as BPD or Borderline Personality Disorder

- It stems from a mixture of genetic and environmental causes (often some sort of trauma).

- Symptoms are generally around emotional regulation and include such things like a feeling of emptiness or being numb or alternatively a feeling of being overwhelmed by very intense emotions.  

- They can also include a feeling like people are judging you or talking about you (may have paranoia) or will stop liking you if you are not 100% perfect all the time.

- Behaviours include suicide ideation or actual suicide attempts, unhealthy behaviours such as binge eating, cutting oneself, or overspending.

- They can also include avoiding getting too close to people for fear of rejection, lacking trust in people, and having unrealistic expectations of people (becoming quite dependant on certain people's approval and validation)

- It is a pattern of disorganised responses, particularly to other people.

- It makes engaging in a 'normal' life (workplace, social, family) very tricky without support.

Mandarin Chinese

• EUPD, huo "qing xu bu wen ding xing ren ge zhang ai", guo qu tong chang bei cheng wei BPD, huo "bian yuan xing ren ge zhang ai".

• Ta shi you yi chong ji yin yin su he huan jing yin su (chang chang bao kuo mou zhong chuang shang) hun he er cheng de.

• Zheng zhuang tong chang yu qing xu diao jie you guan, bao kuo gan dao kong xu, ma mu, huo fan guo lai bei ji qi qiang lie de qing xu suo yan mo.

• Ye ke neng bao kuo gan jue bie ren zai pan duan ni huo tan lun ni (ke neng chu xian bei po hai wang xiang), huo zhe gan jue ru guo ni bu neng shi ke bao chi 100% wan mei, bie ren jiu hui bu zai xi huan ni.

• Xing wei ke neng bao kuo zi sha nian tou huo shi ji de zi sha xing wei, yi ji yi xie bu jian kang de xing wei, li ru bao shi, zi can, huo zhe guo du hua qian.

• Ye ke neng bao kuo yin wei dan xin bei ju jue er bi mian yu bie ren guo yu qin jin, nan yi xin ren ta ren, yi ji dui ta ren you bu xian shi de qi dai (bian de fei chang yi lai mou xie te ding ren de ren ke he ren tong).

• Zhe shi yi zhong hun luan, wu zu zhi de fan ying mo shi, te bie shi mian dui qi ta ren shi geng wei ming xian.

• Ru guo mei you shi dang de zhi chi, yao can yu yi ge "zheng chang" de sheng huo (gong zuo, she hui huo dong, jia ting sheng huo) ke neng hui fei chang kun nan.

Hindi

• EUPD, yaani Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder, ko pehle BPD, yaani Borderline Personality Disorder, ke naam se jaana jaata tha.

• Yeh genetic aur environmental causes ke ek mixture se hota hai (aksar kisi na kisi tarah ka trauma bhi iska hissa hota hai).

• Iske symptoms aam taur par emotions ko regulate karne se jude hote hain aur inmein khaali-pan ya sunn mehsoos karna, ya iske vipreet bahut teevr emotions se overwhelmed mehsoos karna shamil ho sakta hai.

• Ismein yeh mehsoos karna bhi shamil ho sakta hai ki log aapko judge kar rahe hain ya aapke baare mein baat kar rahe hain (paranoia bhi ho sakta hai), ya agar aap har samay 100% perfect nahi hain to log aapko pasand karna band kar denge.

• Behaviours mein suicide ke thoughts ya suicide attempt karna, aur unhealthy behaviours jaise binge eating, khud ko kaatna, ya bahut zyada paisa kharch karna shamil ho sakta hai.

• Ismein rejection ke darr se logon ke bahut kareeb jaane se bachna, logon par bharosa karne mein mushkil hona, aur logon se unrealistic expectations rakhna bhi shamil ho sakta hai (jaise kuch khaas logon ki approval aur validation par bahut zyada dependent ho jaana).

• Yeh disorganised responses ka ek pattern hai, khaas taur par doosre logon ke prati reactions mein.

• Support ke bina ek "normal" zindagi (workplace, social life, family life) mein shaamil hona bahut mushkil ho sakta hai.

Spanish

• El TLP o trastorno límite de la personalidad también se ha denominado históricamente trastorno de personalidad emocionalmente inestable (TPEI o EUPD, por sus siglas en inglés).

• Surge de una combinación de factores genéticos y ambientales (a menudo relacionados con algún tipo de trauma).

• Los síntomas suelen estar relacionados con la regulación emocional e incluyen cosas como sentir vacío o estar emocionalmente insensible, o, por el contrario, sentirse abrumado por emociones muy intensas.

• También pueden incluir la sensación de que otras personas te están juzgando o hablando de ti (puede existir paranoia), o de que dejarán de quererte si no eres 100 % perfecto todo el tiempo.

• Las conductas pueden incluir pensamientos suicidas o intentos de suicidio, así como comportamientos poco saludables como darse atracones de comida, autolesionarse o gastar dinero en exceso.

• También pueden incluir evitar acercarse demasiado a otras personas por miedo al rechazo, tener dificultades para confiar en los demás y tener expectativas poco realistas sobre otras personas (llegando a depender bastante de la aprobación y validación de determinadas personas).

• Es un patrón de respuestas desorganizadas, especialmente en relación con otras personas.

• Sin apoyo, participar en una vida «normal» (laboral, social y familiar) puede resultar muy difícil.