What Are the Main Causes of BPD?

To be truthful from the off there is no one-single-cause of BPD and it is more than likely a combination of causes that brings it about. But there is an ever-growing list of causes many of which people will relate to. For this question, I will go over the most common causes without getting into them too deep in order to prevent them from being triggering…

So…What Are the Main Causes of Borderline Personality Disorder?

Hereditary Pass-on

Most the people with BPD who have no form of childhood trauma (that they know of) often have a close family member who also has BPD or suffers from many of the signs of it. While this is not believed to be DNA linked it will be linked in the display behaviour that is taken in by the child or even later in adult life meaning they develop much the same symptoms. It might be worth checking out your family history to see if there is something there.

Trauma

This is the most probable cause of BPD and it often linked to childhood trauma, but it can also be a traumatic life event. This also causes more diagnoses problems as a “traumatic event” to someone means different things. On persons, traumatic life event is another persons bad day, it’s all about how your brain handles that trauma. While you might not think you have had a traumatic event in your life your brain might well think otherwise.

Brain Processing

As we found out in the trauma section of this page, a lot of factors when it comes to causes can be down to how your own brain perceived that a certain situation. Any structural or functional change in the brain can cause BPD and in return, BPD can then go on to cause more structural and functional changes in the brain as well, like a slippery slope you can soon find yourself struggling to process the simplest of emotions to the point that they overwhelm you.

Hormonal imbalances

The signs or symptoms of a hormonal imbalance don’t just affect your physical health, but also your mental one. The one linked to BPD is called Serotonin which is a hormone that helps regulate mood and personality. Abnormalities in your serotonin production levels can make you much more susceptible to developing BPD.

Other Mental Health Conditions

A growing number of people being diagnosed with BPD have other mental health conditions some of which could cause a structural or functional change in the brain which means you are more susceptible to developing BPD as you have many of the symptoms of it anyway. Getting help as early on as you can with all mental health conditions gives you the best chance of them not interfering with your life.

Seemingly No Cause at All

We end with this with the most frustrating one of all. Maybe it is environmental causes, unknown trauma or just your brain telling you it can’t handle something, there might be seemingly no-cause at all for you having BPD and the number of people believing this is the case is growing all the time. This is often the cause of why some therapists can’t work with people with BPD as they don’t have the groundwork to help them overcome it.

Well, I hope this has answered your question. As always with any posts/pages on this site, we would love to hear from you in the comments below. Is this a question you wanted answering? Are there any questions you have relating to BPD that we have not covered? If so please leave a comment to if you want more privacy do please to get in touch with us via the Contact page.