Borderline personality disorder: recognition and management

Can I have treatment for other conditions?

People with borderline personality disorder often have other conditions, such as depression, anxiety, an eating disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder and drug and alcohol problems. Before you are treated for these conditions, your healthcare team should review your diagnosis (of both borderline personality disorder and any other condition) and look at all the treatments you have had. Any treatment that is not helping should be stopped.

You should be able to have treatment for depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or anxiety at the same time as having treatment for borderline personality disorder. If you have another condition you may be offered psychological treatment and/or medication for this as recommended in the appropriate NICE guideline.

People with severe hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that are not really there) and/or delusions (sometimes believing in things that are not real or true), problems with alcohol or drugs or a severe eating disorder may be offered an appointment with another service for treatment. A care coordinator should keep in contact with the person so that they continue treatment for borderline personality disorder when the time is right.

If you have problems getting to sleep you should be offered advice about having a good sleep routine, avoiding caffeine and cutting down on things that may keep you awake (such as television). You may be offered medication, such as a sedative antihistamine, if your healthcare professional thinks this may help.