They feel agony at the slightest touch or movement

"People with BPD are like people with third degree burns over 90% of their bodies. Lacking emotional skin, they feel agony at the slightest touch or movement."
~ Marsha Linehan, researcher

Traits Involving Relationships

» Unstable,chaotic intense relationships characterized by splitting.

» Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment.

1. Splitting: the self and others are viewed as "all good" or "all bad." Someone with BPD said, "One day I would think my doctor was the best and I loved her, but if she challenged me in any way I hated her. There was no middle ground as in like. In my world, people were either the best or the worst. I couldn't understand the concept of middle ground."
2. Alternating clinging and distancing behaviors (I Hate You, Don't Leave Me). Sometimes you want to be close to someone. But when you get close it feels TOO close and you feel like you have to get some space. This happens often.
3. Great difficulty trusting people and themselves. Early trust may have been shattered by people who were close to you.
4. Sensitivity to criticism or rejection.
5. Feeling of "needing" someone else to survive.
6. Some people with BPD may have an unusually high degree of interpersonal sensitivity, insight and empathy.