Borderline Personality Disorder in Teenagers

There’s been a lot of talk lately about psychiatric challenges that can emerge in the teenage years — especially borderline personality disorder. And it’s coming from a surprising place: TikTok. Teenagers, most of them girls, are sharing raw accounts of extreme emotions and self-destructive behaviors they attribute to BPD. Millions of teens are watching them. As a result, we’re hearing reports that a lot of kids are diagnosing themselves with BPD, even though emotional volatility is a typical characteristic of adolescence.

Whether you’re concerned about a child or have a child who thinks they have the disorder, it’s crucial to get accurate information. In this week’s newsletter we’ve rounded up the latest thinking about borderline personality disorder, as well as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia — all disorders of adolescence and early adulthood. What are the symptoms, and how does each develop? Most important, it’s critical to know about the best treatment, which for each of these disorders has become much more effective in recent years.