Theories as to the Cause of Borderline Personality Disorder

Theories as to the cause of Borderline Personality Disorder aren't conclusive enough to base intervention, healing, and recovery on.

There is much more speculation and theorizing as to the cause of Borderline Personality Disorder, (BPD), than may be beneficial, in the long run, to all who are in any way effected by this disorder.

Regardless of its etiology the primary focus needs to be on treatment and the reality that improvements and degrees of recovery, up to and including full recovery are possible.

Why do I say this? Well, in my experience with and recovery from BPD what I have come to profoundly understand is that regardless of the cause what will serve everyone to focus much more on is how to treat Borderline Personality Disorder and how to change the minds of the many professionals who still view this disorder as essentially "untreatable" and who continue to do a great disservice to a growing number of people.

Knowing that recovery is possible is much more important than focusing and dwelling on the cause. If you burn you hand on a stove top burner and you need cream to help it heal, will you choose to continue to dwell on how your hand got hurt or the fact that the cream will help take the pain away?

That said because it needed to be said and needs to be remembered, if you can have some idea or understanding about why you have BPD, this knowledge has the potential to help you in your efforts to heal and recover.

There are theories that attribute one potential causation of BPD as being a genetic one. If one has a borderline parent, or borderline parents there is thought to be a much greater risk that he/she will also have BPD. Is this genetic or is this due to the chaotic emotional environment that a person with a parent (or both parents) who are borderline will be exposed to?

There those who argue this is indicative of a genetic argument and those who argue the exact opposite or say that it could be both a genetic component and an environmental one.

Genetically speaking the theories also purport the possibility that one can be born with a predisposition for BPD and that BPD might be fully activated then by environmental factors.

Many with BPD that I've asked questions of on this subject have pointed out that they have had a neurological injury in childbirth or childhood (as I did). Many have also reported that they have been diagnosed (as have I been) with some form of epilepsy and/or temporal lobe dysfunction.