NFL Star Brandon Marshall Talks Borderline Personality Disorder, Awaits His Own Recovery

"I have a dream home, my house is beautiful. My wife did a great job putting our house together finding the right house for us. We have two nice cars, we have three beautiful dogs. But with all that said, I haven't enjoyed not one part of it," Brandon Marshall, 27, said in a press conference at Miami Dolphins training camp.

On Sunday, Dolphins player Marshall, a wide receiver for the team, revealed that he has been suffering for years from borderline personality disorder, (BPD) a severe mental illness that causes mood swings and problems in personal relationships.

"Borderline personality disorder is marked by pervasive instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image and emotions," said Dr. Harold Bursztajn, co-director of the Harvard Medical School Program in Psychiatry and the Law. "It's marked by issues with impulsivity." Bursztajn did not treat Marshall, but spoke about the condition based on his clinical observations of other patients.

The 27-year-old two-time Pro Bowler says treatment this past summer has saved his life. "I have a dream home, two nice cars, three beautiful dogs, but I haven't enjoyed one part of it," Marshall told a South Florida Sun Sentinel reporter. "And it was hard to understand why."

The National Institutes of Health defines BPD as:

A serious mental illness characterized by pervasive instability in moods, interpersonal relationships, self-image, and behavior. This instability often disrupts family and work life, long-term planning, and the individual's sense of self-identity.

Originally thought to be at the "borderline" of psychosis, people with BPD suffer from a disorder of emotion regulation. While less well known than schizophrenia or bipolar disorder (manic-depressive illness), BPD is more common, affecting 2 percent of adults, mostly young women.

During the same time as Marshall's treatment, the Dolphins wide receiver had been under much scrutiny after his wife was arrested once for allegedly stabbing him in the abdomen with a knife in April, and then again on June 10 for violating a protection order when it was discovered that she was living in the couple's Florida home.

At the time, Marshall was in the midst of three months of therapy and psychological examination at Boston's McLean Hospital, were he was diagnosed with BPD.

Brandon Marshall Discusses Suffering from BPD