What is BPD?
Borderline Personality Disorder is one of ten personality disorders recognised by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV). It is thought that less than one percent of the population are affected by BPD, and, of those diagnosed, three quarters are women. This may be due to the different ways in which the sexes deal with criticism, girls tending to internalise it while boys generally cast it out. It could also be due to the fact that the female brain functions in a different way to the male brain, and because statistically girls are more likely to be sexually abused than boys.