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Get startedBorderline Personality Disorder:
Understand, Manage and Thrive
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a mental health condition characterised by unstable moods, intense emotions, and difficulties in relationships and self-image. These symptoms can significantly disrupt your daily life, relationships and overall wellbeing.
Reviewed by Phillipa Brown, AHPRA-registered Psychologist
Understanding borderline personality disorder.
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a mental health condition characterised by unstable moods, intense emotions, and difficulties in relationships and self-image. These symptoms can significantly disrupt your daily life, relationships and overall wellbeing.
Understanding and addressing BPD is essential to building stability and improving your quality of life.
What Causes Borderline Personality Disorder?
BPD arises from a combination of genetic, environmental and neurological factors. Common contributing factors include:
- Family history of mental illness
- Traumatic experiences or childhood adversity
- Neurochemical imbalances
- Difficulties with emotional regulation
Recognise the Signs of BPD
Typical symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder include:
- Intense fear of abandonment
- Unstable and intense relationships
- Rapid mood swings and emotional instability
- Impulsive behaviours (e.g., reckless spending)
- Feelings of emptiness or lack of identity
- Severe anger and difficulty controlling temper
- Self-harming behaviours or suicidal thoughts
- Paranoid thoughts or dissociative symptoms
Myths about Borderline Personality Disorder
Myth: People with BPD are just attention-seeking. Truth: BPD involves real emotional distress and serious challenges in regulating emotions and behaviours.
Myth: Borderline Personality Disorder can't be treated effectively. Truth: With professional support, individuals with BPD can manage symptoms and lead fulfilling lives.
Importance of Seeking Professional Help
Untreated BPD can severely impact your quality of life and relationships. Professional support can:
- Improve emotional regulation
- Stabilise interpersonal relationships
- Develop effective coping strategies
- Enhance self-awareness and emotional resilience
How MeHelp Psychology Can Support You
MeHelp Psychology provides specialised treatments tailored to managing Borderline Personality Disorder, including:
- Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT): Strategies specifically designed for emotional regulation, interpersonal effectiveness, mindfulness and distress tolerance.
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT): Techniques to identify and challenge distorted thinking and behaviours.
- Schema Therapy: Addressing deep-seated emotional patterns and self-image issues.
- Personalised Treatment Plans: Focused therapy sessions tailored specifically to your needs and life goals.
Real-Life Example
Alex, 30, struggled for years with intense emotional swings and unstable relationships. After beginning treatment with MeHelp Psychology using DBT and Schema Therapy, Alex developed stronger emotional control, healthier relationships, and a clearer sense of identity. Today, Alex leads a more stable, confident, and fulfilling life.
Practical Steps You Can Take Today
- Practice Mindfulness: Regular mindfulness helps you manage intense emotions.
- Develop Healthy Boundaries: Clearly define and communicate your limits in relationships.
- Emotion Journaling: Writing about your feelings can increase emotional awareness and control.
- Establish Routine: Predictable daily routines provide emotional stability.
- Seek Peer Support: Connecting with supportive communities or groups can reduce feelings of isolation.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is online therapy effective for Borderline Personality Disorder?
Yes. Online therapy, particularly structured therapies like DBT, has proven effective and accessible for managing BPD.
Can medication help manage BPD symptoms?
Medication can assist in managing specific symptoms like mood swings or anxiety. However, psychotherapy is the primary treatment approach. Consulting a psychologist or psychiatrist can help determine your ideal treatment plan.
Do Medicare rebates cover therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder?
Yes. With a Mental Health Care Plan from your GP, you can access Medicare rebates for psychological treatment related to BPD.
Take Your First Step Towards Stability
Living a balanced, fulfilling life with Borderline Personality Disorder is possible. At MeHelp Psychology, our dedicated professionals are here to support your journey.
Book your first session today and start building a life of emotional stability and meaningful connections.
What causes borderline personality disorder?
There's rarely one single cause. Most of the time, borderline personality disorder develops from a mix of life experiences, biology, and the environment a person grew up in. Stressful events, family history, and how someone learned to cope with big feelings as a child all play a part.
Understanding the "why" doesn't make the experience smaller — but it can take some of the self-blame out of it. What you're going through makes sense, given everything that came before it.
A psychologist can help you join the dots between what's happened in your life and what you're feeling now — and start to shift the patterns gently.
Supporting someone going through borderline personality disorder.
Watching someone you care about struggle with borderline personality disorder is hard. You might feel helpless, worried, or unsure of what to say. That's normal.
You can help by:
- Listening without trying to fix or rush them
- Taking what they say seriously, even when it's hard to hear
- Asking what kind of support would actually help today
- Looking after your own wellbeing too — you can't pour from an empty cup
- Encouraging professional support without pressuring them
If you're the one supporting them, you're allowed to seek your own therapy too — it doesn't take anything away from them.
The emotional impact is real.
The feelings below are common with borderline personality disorder. They're not signs that something is wrong with you — they're signs of what you've been carrying.
Anxiety and feeling on edge. Always scanning for the next thing to go wrong. Hard to switch off.
Self-doubt. Second-guessing your decisions, memory, or read of the situation.
Low mood and tiredness. Tasks that used to feel easy take far more effort than they used to.
Shame. A sense that other people are coping better than you are. Shame eases in the right company.
Numbness or distance. Feeling foggy, disconnected, or like you're watching life from a step back.
Sleep changes. Trouble falling asleep, waking at 3am, or sleeping far more than usual.
You don't need a formal diagnosis to take what you're feeling seriously. The impact is real.
Why recovery takes time.
Healing from borderline personality disorder is rarely a straight line. It moves in waves — clear one week, harder the next, then quieter again. That isn't a setback. That's the shape of healing.
Good therapy won't push you faster than you're ready to go. Pacing — not pressure — is how this work moves. Small, steady steps add up.
When to seek help.
You might consider seeing a psychologist if you notice any of the following:
- Borderline Personality Disorder is affecting your work, study, or relationships
- You've been trying to cope on your own and it isn't shifting
- Sleep, appetite, or energy have been off for weeks
- You're using alcohol or other things to take the edge off
- A friend, family member, or GP has suggested you talk to someone
- You just want a space to make sense of what's going on
If you're in crisis right now
Call 000 if you or someone else is in danger. Lifeline on 13 11 14 is open 24/7. For family or domestic abuse, 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732.
Treatment that works.
The most evidence-based help for borderline personality disorder is talk therapy. Different approaches suit different goals — your psychologist will tailor things to you.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
Works with the thoughts and behaviours keeping things stuck. Strong evidence across many conditions.
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Helps you make room for hard feelings while still moving toward what matters to you.
Trauma-informed therapy
EMDR, schema therapy, and IFS help process past experiences gently, without re-traumatising.
Mindfulness-based approaches
Builds the ability to notice what's going on inside without getting swept up in it.
Schema and psychodynamic therapy
Works with longer-standing patterns from early life that show up in adult relationships.
Medication where helpful
Sometimes prescribed by your GP alongside therapy. Always your choice.
Talk to an Australian psychologist about borderline personality disorder.
Every MeHelp psychologist is AHPRA-registered and Australian-trained. Sessions are online, bulk billed under Medicare where eligible, and available evenings and weekends.
AHPRA-registered
Every psychologist is Australian-trained and regulated.
Bulk billing available
Under Medicare with a Mental Health Treatment Plan.
Same-week appointments
Not three months on a public waiting list.
Evenings and weekends
Sessions fit around your schedule, online from home.
How to access support.
Most clients use a Mental Health Treatment Plan and signed referral so sessions can be bulk-billed under Medicare. NDIS, DVA, and private options are also available.
Book a GP appointment
Ask your GP for a mental health consultation. A longer appointment is best so there's time to talk through what's going on.
What do I do at the GP?Get your plan and referral
Your GP can prepare a Mental Health Treatment Plan and signed referral letter. MeHelp needs both before bulk-billed sessions can begin.
See documents requiredSend it to MeHelp
Upload your documents to our secure folder, email them, or ask your GP to fax them. We'll match you with a psychologist.
Send my planFrequently asked questions about borderline personality disorder.
Ready to talk to a psychologist?
Same-week appointments. Bulk billing available. Online across Australia.
With a referral, or without.
Both get you to the same place — an AHPRA-registered psychologist, online. The difference is cost and a GP visit.
With a Medicare referral
Bulk billed — nothing to pay.
- Up to 10 sessions a calendar year
- Needs a GP Mental Health Treatment Plan + referral
- We bill Medicare directly
Without a referral
Pay privately — no GP required.
- No GP visit, no referral
- No session limit — go at your pace
- Often a first session this week
- Completely private — nothing shared