Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a mental health condition that affects the way people think about themselves and others around them. This condition makes it hard for people to function daily or do the things they love. Symptoms can range from unstable and intense behavior to impulsiveness and unhealthy ways of seeing themselves to their relationships with others. People living with BPD have difficulties developing and maintaining healthy relationships with others. Friends and families may perceive them as difficult and unpredictable. They can also form unhealthy attachments with others and have a strong fear of abandonment or being left alone, which in some cases are faulty perceptions. In addition, they often present with extreme emotions and act or take actions before thinking about the consequences.

Other characteristics common among people living with BPD are parasuicidal behaviours such as threats of suicide, self-injurious, mood swings, anger, emotional dysregulation, unhealthy risk-taking, ongoing feelings of emptiness, impulse spending and difficulties maintaining employment.