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Additionally, studies corroborate that about 90 percent of patients with the BPD diagnosis also share at least one other major psychiatric diagnosis.7,8
BPD with anorexia, bulimia, ADHD, drug addiction, and teenage suicide—all of which have increased alarmingly over the last decade. Some studies have uncovered BPD in almost 50 percent of all patients admitted to a facility for an eating disorder.9 Other studies have found that over 50 percent of substance abusers also fulfill criteria for BPD.
As many as 70 percent of BPD patients attempt suicide. The incidence of documented death by suicide is about 8 to 10 percent and even higher for borderline adolescents. A history of previous suicide attempts, a chaotic family life, and a lack of support systems increase the likelihood. The risk multiplies even more among borderline patients who also suffer from depressive or manic-depressive (bipolar) disorders, or from alcoholism or drug abuse.10,11
The lure of ecstatic experiences, whether attained through sex, drugs, or other means, is sometimes overwhelming for the borderline. In ecstasy, he can return to a primal world where the self and the external world merge—a form of second infancy.
