Age of onset? Or...?

I have read that young adult onset is pretty normal for BPD, but I am not really sure if this is just because they won't diagnose it in adolescents, or what.

Is it common for BPD symptoms to kind of suddenly start rapidly worsening at a point in someone's life? Or for other people reading this, have you always been very BPD-behaving?

I had a lot or all of the personality elements of BPD as a teenager for sure, but the emotional instability has just been absolutely dreadful lately (I'm 21) and now I'm acting more like a BPD person when before I was more in control of how I acted and dealt with overwhelming feelings.

What do you guys think? Is this normal or not normal?

When I come to think of it, I think my mom might have been the same, because she managed to finish a 4 year degree, yet she spent most of her adult life after that crippled by her BPD, bi-polar and depression and never had a professional life....

I'm 23, male and the symptoms started 3 years ago and got worse until i came to this forum.

I'm not really sure of the answer to this so I'll just give you my experience...
Some of my BPD behaviour started when I was 11, I started self harming by cutting and pulling my hair out. By 16 I was doing it almost every day and I'd developed a problem with food. Not because I wanted to be 'thin' or whatever (although that was a side effect) I was just too anxious to eat. I guess you could say I was 'promiscuous' from the age of 17 (although I really hate that word and don't really understand the definition of it.)

I know these are all BPD behaviours, however you could argue that a lot of teenagers go through some of these. I think the fact I went through all of them to an extreme degree and then later ended up with the diagnosis of BPD shows I'd pretty much had it from a young age, or it was developing pretty quickly from a young age anyway.

I took one overdose when I was 15 but I have to add things got a lot worse by the age of 22 (i'm 25 now) That's when things started getting really, really s**t. Bunch of overdoses over the past three years, numerous hospital admissions because my self harm is out of control and last year I was admitted to a Psych Unit.

I think the behaviours have always been there, but yeah, I do think they've gotten steadily worse in my 20's.

I think I have always had some BPD issues, particularly rage issues. Though when they first became really bad was when I was 13 and took my first overdose and had my first inpatient admission. Shortly after that I began with self injury and all the rest. My first BPD diagnosis was at 16.

Looking back probably at 20. Official diagnosis 40.

I would say that it started when I was in my tweens. When I was younger, I was more filled with intense feelings of sadness at my home life, and as I got older, it started turning towards more feelings of hot, boiling rage at the circumstances of my life that could not be changed.

I can see some of my bpd behavior as far back as 6th or 7th grade. I was officially diagnosed around 22 or 23.

I had a lot or all of the personality elements of BPD as a teenager for sure, but the emotional instability has just been absolutely dreadful lately (I'm 21) and now I'm acting more like a BPD person when before I was more in control of how I acted and dealt with overwhelming feelings.

What do you guys think? Is this normal or not normal?

I would say this is closer to normal than not. I think a lot of changes, which can be triggering, take place in a persons early 20's.

Okay, so it looks like from what everyone is saying... you CAN Be very BPD in teens, but a lot of people do get worse around this age?

That makes sense. Do you guys think it has to do with leaving home? Like, you have your broken parent-child relationship growing up, then you leave home and that's where you really start applying these maladaptive dynamics to other relationships?

Thanks for all the replies!

I've been somewhat BPD my whole life. I was a child of anxiety, though, so I didn't act out - but I had a lot of anger, I would break down completely if I felt abandoned, I splitted people, I didn't have a stable sense of identity at all, I was impulsive, I experienced relationships so much more intense than everyone else seemed to do, and I craved love without trusting anyone to give it to me... I remember asking myself, over and over, why I couldn't be like the other kids.

As the years went by I turned everything even more inwards, which led to a pretty severe depression as well as self-harm and suicidal thoughts, and after finally breaking down completely, I was sent to a safer environment. I was too messed up to benefit from it, though. I didn't trust anyone, I was paranoid, and when I realized that it was okay to let things out once in a while, I stopped holding back, leading to a more clear picture of the BPD raging inside of me. I started snapping at people over nothing, I changed identity more often than other people changed socks, and I would go from being peaceful and happy to standing on a bridge in less than a second.

I suppose I'm one of those who was born with it. ISurely, being overly sensitive and anxious in a bad environment doesn't help, but I've had the instability my whole life. I used to be the silent, repressed and passive agressive type of BPD; now I'm more reckless, chaotic and theatrical.

I feel like I'm getting worse as I'm leaving my teens behind as well. I just don't care that much anymore, I don't hold it in, I just go with it and hope for the best... which probably isn't a good thing, but I don't expect living for that long anyway. If I can't fight my insanity, I might as well enjoy it as much as I can.

15

Promiscuity, all the suppressed rage finally coming out at my Mom, caught shoplifting,
took a few pills for attention, drunk and laid down in the street threatening suicide
when a kid called me a slut, breaking up with boys before they would break up with
me, binge eating, lying....