Not All People Who Self-Harm Have BPD

While self-harm is one of the symptoms of borderline personality disorder, not everyone who engages in self-harm has BPD, and not everyone who has BPD engages in self-harm.

Unfortunately, many people equate self-harm with a diagnosis of BPD-- this is simply not the case. Recent research has shown that many people who engage in self-harm not only do not have BPD, they have very low levels of psychiatric symptoms in general. But, whether or not the self-harm is part of the BPD syndrome, it is important to be evaluated, as self-harming behaviors alone can have very serious consequences.