People with BPD often experience extreme emotional mood swings. They can be happy one moment and desperately sad or disappointed the next. A very small thing that doesn’t bother another person can either overly excite or extremely disappoint a person with BPD. Their moods can be very intense and unpredictable in timing and may last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours or longer.
These mood swings may also happen frequently. Someone with BPD can have many mood swings in the course of a day, whereas most people will only experience one or two major emotional shifts in the course of a week. While most people will have times in their lives when they are more emotionally vulnerable, people with BPD can experience these shifts in emotions consistently for years. This can affect their interpersonal relationships with loved ones, friends, and colleagues.