Heightened sensitivity to facial expression emotions in bpd

"Heightened sensitivity to facial expressions of emotion in borderline personality disorder"

Abstract
Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) have been hypothesized to exhibit significant problems associated with emotional sensitivity. The current study examined emotional sensitivity (i.e., low threshold for recognition of emotional stimuli) in BPD by comparing 20 individuals with BPD and 20 normal controls on their accuracy in identifying emotional expressions. Results demonstrated that, as facial expressions morphed from neutral to maximum intensity, participants with BPD correctly identified facial affect at an earlier stage than did healthy controls. Participants with BPD were more sensitive than healthy controls in identifying emotional expressions in general, regardless of valence. These findings could not be explained by participants with BPD responding faster with more errors. Overall, results appear to support the contention that heightened emotional sensitivity may be a core feature of BPD.

Department of Psychology, Social and Health Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17144755

I've actually done the online facial test, and I was above the norm.

However, this doesn't really surprise me - since people with BPD are usually rooted somewhere with deep emotional trauma, I feel that we became oversensitive to trying to read the emotions of others, in order to prepare our response or have a "heads up" for others' moods whom we depended on for care.

In that sense, I was always trying to figure out my parents' moods when they would come home from work, so I knew if I should hide away in my room, or be visible.

Anyone else feel that they had proper training for reading emotions? (hand raised).

<3

AMP

Our issues aren't all based on illusions, this research seems to support that we are actually more intuitive in regards to subtle clues with people. Granted most of us may not act accordingly but this makes me think that half of the problem is that we just sense disturbances quickly and begin to react, when most of those disturbances would likely come and go un-noticed by normal folks.

I'm just learning after many failed relationships and much inner turmoil that I have a predisposition(BPD) for the kinds of problems I confront. I look forward to bettering myself and my relationship capacity by learning to mitigate the problems and accentuate the benefits of this strange make up we share.

On the positive note, I feel that these sensitivities make us very special and give us so much insight into what ever it is we come across in life. We are in tune with our communities and our environments and in the state of things our turmoil is perhaps due to a deeper understanding of the truth. As a result of these intuitions personally I am left with a deep sense of compassion and a desire to give what I can for the greater good.

I have a hard time acknowledging childhood trauma as being relevant, which may be a block for me. My dad was physically abusive according to my mom and I remember him being full of anger towards me but I don't remember being beat really just pushed around and threatened some.(although my mom says I was beat I don't remember it)

I feel like the facial recognition advantages for BPD may be a matter of being concerned about the emotions of others as we know our own are felt so deep and are thus important. After years of reading people for emotions we would naturally test better at it because we've had more practice.

the research I've read has found that people with bpd interpret neutral expressions as negative. and I personally find for myself that I can generalize that to other things, like text messages without any smileys or xoxo's or anything indicating an emotion... I definitely perceive that as meaning they're not happy with me, or don't actually want me coming over, or whatnot. hell, even neutral body language bothers me because I take it negatively. so I think that at least for me, it really just comes down to assuming the worst in any given situation, jumping straight to that negative reaction.

Ali,

What online test did you do? linky for me?

B x

I love this, and I really liked what you said, Grover. I feel like I have more compassion for others due to my own sensitivity. It's easy for me to imagine what others are feeling and take those feelings seriously because my own feelings are so loud and intense.

Yay! I love research that shows "mentally ill" people to be gifted, perceptive, etc.

HI guys!

The test is the Baron Cohen.

Here's a link to it:

http://glennrowe.net/BaronCohen/Faces/EyesTest.aspx


Have fun! Let me know what you scored :0)


AMP

I believe I did a thread on this already, it's in the archives somewhere.
My result was near perfect. Way above the average. Whilst it may be down to trauma, I believe it can also occur naturally, some people just are very hyper aware of their environment and of the small subtle changes in people's behaviour and expressions. It's definately down to hyper sensitivity/perception for detail and it can be a curse and a blessing being so highly attuned to things. I do agree that in unison, it can ramp it up, (environmental and innate factors).
However, I think some people here didn't score highly...so maybe it's just one of those things some do better than others. No idea.

Hi Lu!

I think I scored a 27 out of 31, so mine def wasn't perfect... I liked taking that test though.

:0)

AMP