LEARN
A place to better understand BPD, c-PTSD, attachment patterns, and how they can shape our experiences and relationships.
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What is Borderline Personality Disorder?
01 — Borderline Personality Disorder
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What is Complex PTSD?
02 — Complex Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (c-PTSD)
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. In many cases, environmental factors associated with BPD involve a lack of attunement. This occurs when our caregivers consistently and repeatedly do not meet our needs, for whatever reason, which can contribute to attachment trauma.
Another potential cause of attachment trauma is a lack of consistent access to caregivers. This can occur even when caregivers are physically present but emotionally unavailable or inaccessible because their attention is focused elsewhere.
What is Borderline Personality Disorder?
01 — Borderline Personality Disorder
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What is Complex PTSD?
02 — Complex Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (c-PTSD)
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+ learn more
What is Borderline Personality Disorder?
01 — Borderline Personality Disorder
What is Complex PTSD?
02 — Complex Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (c-PTSD)
Attachment trauma can also contribute to Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (c-PTSD). When we experience c-PTSD, we experience cumulative trauma over a long period of time. Think of it as “death by a thousand paper cuts.” We experience an invalidating environment and/or a lack of attunement for so long that we learn our environment is predictably unpredictable. We learn that we can sometimes get our needs met if our caregivers’ needs are met first.
We learn that we cannot trust the environment around us, and sometimes become despondent as a result. Other times, we may become hypervigilant because we are in a frequent state of alertness. We may have to self-regulate in order for our caregiver to regulate, which can be a scary experience for a child.
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