Can Borderline Personality Disorder have an effect on your physical health? Short answer: yes! In fact if you have BPD you almost certainly realised this long ago. Poorly managed mental health is often detrimental to our bodies. Depressive or low moods may lead to us not being able to eat balanced meals, do exercise and take care of our personal hygiene.
I remember one very hot summer I hid under my duvet, with no water, no showers, and a box or two of pizza for the most part of a week. I think in the end my housemate intervened by bringing bottles of water to me. All I could think of at the time was how I couldn’t face another 20 years of existence. Looking back on it I was emotionally exhausted from learning to ‘mask’ my symptoms, trying desperately to keep up with uni work, and learning to live away from home. I had a lot on my plate and it simply caused me to freeze up.
These days I have learned to manage my burnout in a healthier way, despite it still hitting me hard at times. I am much more in control of my symptoms, but my physical health has suffered over the years. Let’s talk about a few of the problems people living with BPD encounter:
Weight - In my experience this one is very common. This could be either being overweight or underweight. There are lots of contributing factors here: medications that cause increased appetite (or the opposite), lack of motivation to exercise, emotional overeating and even not having the mental stability to cook a healthy meal. It is also vital to mention that those with BPD often have a comorbid eating disorder that can go hand in hand with poor self-esteem and feeling out of control.
Underlying health conditions - Because people with BPD face a lot of stigma from healthcare professionals and therefore are more reluctant to seek help, things can get missed. Repeated invalidation from services is enough to re-traumatise us and make us avoid getting help from our GPs. Alternatively the BPD diagnosis becomes a distraction and often symptoms of other illnesses are contributed to mental health. I recall one story of a girl with BPD who was going to her GP for months, presenting with chest pains and feeling clammy. The GP put it down to anxiety and did no further investigation. It was only after she had a heart attack in her early twenties, that they realised she had a heart condition. This isn’t an isolated event, I’ve heard many stories like this from friends and other BPD content creators.
Liver/kidney damage - This is something I’ve heard less about, but if you take a couple of things into consideration it makes sense. Firstly liver damage can be caused by excessive alcohol use. We know that many people with BPD also struggle with substance misuse and impulse control problems. Secondly, we know that overdoses of certain medications can also damage the liver. So we can safely assume that acting on our impulsive urges can cause us some pretty serious physical problems. With regard to kidney damage, I used to work with a woman who developed this through refusing to drink much water due to her low mood.
Digestion issues - this one is quite personal to me, but if you’ve read the ACEs study (seriously go research this, it’ll blow your mind) you can see how this could happen. I’ve had on and off stomach problems for most of my adult life, and I’ve suffered a lot of pain in my abdomen. I kept going to the hospital in agony; a roaring burning pain in my stomach that would have me on the floor screaming. No one could ever work out what the problem was - mainly due to the very long waiting times at my A&E. The pain would subside and I would be sent home. Eventually the doctors decided to do some investigating and it turned out that I had developed a stomach ulcer. There are many reasons why someone can get a stomach ulcer, but mine was put down to constant stress. Not really a situation I can fix when I live in a perpetual state of anxiety. I take medication for it and it is better managed now, but I have to be careful of what I eat and drink and take my meds wherever I go.
Dental problems - I wasn’t planning to write about this, but as I was thinking I realised how much of an issue this one is. I have been lucky. Countless nights of passing out without brushing my teeth and days where I simply couldn’t get the energy together, haven’t really caused me problems. I’m 29 without a single filling and have never had major work done in my adult life, despite not going to the dentist for a decade at one point. Others aren’t so lucky. It is a known fact that some antipsychotic medications can cause dental problems and weaken teeth. I know a few people who have rotted their teeth beyond repair thanks to not cleaning them, smoking cigarettes and avoiding the dentist. There have even been studies correlating poor dental hygiene with heart disease.
As you can see, living with BPD and other mental health conditions can take a huge toll on your physical wellbeing. Remember when you are in treatment to talk about your physical health concerns and needs. You’re going to need help with it and you deserve to be looked after holistically.
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