Case Study on Borderline Personality Disorder

Running head: CASE STUDY ON BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER
CASE STUDY ON BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER
Name of the student:
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CASE STUDY ON BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER
Brief history of the case:
Chloe Smith is a 25-year-old woman who was admitted to the hospital after she tried
to commit a suicide by trying to jump from a cliff. However, the visitors had reached there on
time to save her and got her back to the apartment where she stays with her roommate. Her
roommate revealed that Chloe been always like this with extreme mood swings where she
conducted many impulsive actions. Last week, she had a break up with her boyfriend after a
public fight where she had even slapped him in front of public. She was very angry and
disappointed at that time. The next morning she was not found absent in her room and
therefore her friend had called her many times to which she did not pick up. In the afternoon,
she came back upset and told that her partner did not want to renew the relationship even
when she had apologised. She had been upset for two days where she had frequent bouts of
anger where she broke up things in the house and even shouted at herself in the mirror.
However, as days passed her friend thought that she was gradually healing as she found her
engaging herself in her leisure activities like gardening, painting and going to her job
regularly. All of a sudden, the day before, she was gain found to be disappointed and upset
when she found her partner being engaged into a new relationship. Her friend tried to help
her with the emotions and thought that she was gradually able to pick herself up. Chloe asked
her friend to make her coffee, as she wanted to get over the stress. As her friend had gone to
the kitchen, she heard the door shut, where she found that Chloe had left taking the keys of
the car. From then, she had no news of her until this morning; she was called at the hospital
where Chloe was admitted after the visitors rescued her when she tried to commit suicide.
Identification of the mental disorder:
From the above case scenario, it can be stated that Chloe suffered from borderline
personality disorder (BPD). It can be described as a mental disorder that impact the ways an

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CASE STUDY ON BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER
individual think about herself as well as that of the others and thereby causing various kinds
of problems in functioning in their everyday lives. The events in their lives include a pattern
of unstable intense relationships as well as distorted self-image, extreme emotions as well as
impulsiveness (Bateman et al., 2015). Chloe often had bouts of impulsive actions where she
slapped her partner in public, tried to commit suicide and many others. Chloe had repeatedly
failed to control her emotions and she has been always found to have mood swings where she
was angry at one moment, depressed, and withdrawn at the other moment.
Symptoms:
Reviews of literature have stated that when individuals suffer from borderline
personality disorder, they have an intense fear of abandonment as well as instability.The
proposed DSM-V (2013) diagnostic criteria had put forward many symptoms that help in
identifying patients with BPD (Benson et al., 2017). Individuals find it difficult to tolerate in
being alone. The participants of the studies who are caregivers of people suffering from
borderline personality disorder have revealed that anger, frequent mood swings as well as
impulsiveness of the patients push them away from others when though they want to have
lasting as well as loving relationships with others (Linehan, 2018). Another symptom found
among such patients just like Chloe is a pattern of unstable intense relationships like that of
idealizing someone at one moment and then suddenly believing that the person does not care
or is cruel (Paris, 2018). At first, Chloe slapped her partner thinking that he was trying to hurt
her or betray her but the next morning she had a mood swing where she went to her partner
with an apology. Fonagy et al., (2016) have stated another symptom like rapid changes in
self-identity as well as self-image that include shifting values and goals as well as seeing
oneself as bad or as if he or she is not present at all. Others include period of stress related
paranoia as well as loss of contact with that of the reality that last for few minutes or to even
few hours (Baer, 2015). Chloe was often seen talking with herself in the mirror where she