Borderline Personality Disorder can be a completely debilitating disease that can creep in out of nowhere in your life. Any type of personality disorder can change the way you live your life drastically. With Borderline, however, the perceptions of the people in your life, as well as, the situations you find yourself in can turn upside down in a second. For some people, the only comfort they can find is with their pets. The animals that live with sufferers of BPD can be a stable source of light in their life and can even help them cope with extreme episodes.

Borderline Mindset

BPD patients suffer from a variety of symptoms that can make everyday tasks seem like a trial. Suffers often times go through many periods of love/hate feelings towards the people they encountered in day to day settings. A person afflicted with the disorder struggles with apparently judging relationships, and a lot of the time will sabotage things unknowingly just to protect themselves. Patients will find themselves in a cycle of getting close to different people, then bail when things get too deep or seem like they could go south. The worst part about the flight response triggered in the afflicted is that most of the time it is a false alert. Many suffers feel a great deal of loneliness which drives some of the more dangerous issues that come with the disorder.

The disorder works by over stimulating a person emotions to where their mind feels it has to constantly protect them. Suffers will often time be overtaken by racing thought patterns or start to see positive actions by others as negatives. The brain will do anything in its power to avoid emotional abandonment that could affect it with overwhelming emotional pain. Often times the afflicted person won’t even trust their close relationships enough to bring up or discuss the disease if they know they have it. Society, in recent years, has become rough against personality disorders leading many people to feel as though they can’t be open without backlash.

Emotional Dependency

The sad truth about having a mental disorder that focuses on driving people away is that there aren’t many people who can successfully deal with it. Even the most kind-hearted of people may not be able to take the outbursts from someone who hasn’t been fully diagnosed or who cannot take their medicine. Even patients who are properly medicated can have borderline episodes if there are a high number of changes or stressful situations in their life. Borderlines will require a lot more time and reassurance than most other people and over time most humans nerves will begin to dissolves, especially during the younger adult and teenage years.

Often times, if a borderline suffer is left without any type of emotional support their issues can worsen over time. To offset the feeling of being alone many of these people will gravitate towards looking into getting a pet for company. Pets seem to not be as big of a trigger for the afflicted and can help a patient slowly do better over time. Most of these animals are bought for companionship rather than any other trait and will spend a lot of time with their adoptee. This leads to a bond being formed between the two that can help save a patient’s life or even stop destructive behavior.

An emotional support animal gives the afflicted someone to come home to every day. With their pet, they can rely on them staying by their side with little worry of leaving. Oftentimes, their companion will make them more stable by giving them more purpose in their life. Their brain will latch on to the idea of the support animal and start to factor them into the equation. Since the number one issue is the feeling of abandonment, they will think twice about doing anything that would put their companion through the same pain. The support animal can greatly influence their owner to forgo any plan of suicide during an episode and can be the swaying factor in keeping them alive.

Support Through The Fear

Panic attacks are common things for patients with BPD. Panic attacks can set in at any random time and can be especially bad if you have decided to live on your own. Pets can help reduce the time it takes to get through an attack. Often times, animals can sense distress and if they are emotionally bonded to their owner, they will try to comfort them through any pain they pick up on. By just having their pet living with them, everyday challenges like panic onsets can become a lot more manageable.

Like stated above, suffers often have a hard time warning others of their mental status. Pets are extremely open and receptive to anyone who treats them properly no matter their issues. This gives the patient someone to confide in and lean on when symptoms kick up without the fear of rejection. Emotional support animals have the ability to eliminate the feeling of total loneliness a person may feel during these attacks. This is also great for attacks that onset during hours where their friends or family cannot be reached for support. If a person has a waking nightmare that induces an attack late at night, they may not have anyone to reach out to. With a support animal by their side, they can easily pet on or talk to their pet to calm down without having to suffer until help is available.

Taking Back Your Life

If you have a registered animal then you can take them to almost any place you go. The animal can become your balance during things like lunch meetups or family gatherings. These animals just being able to alleviate the feeling of being alone will be a huge turning point for the BPD symptoms. By just having the knowledge that you can take help with you everywhere you go, you can greatly reduce the onset of possible panic attacks or lesson the flight response you get when getting close to other individuals.