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WHAT IS BPD?

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Hyperborean
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19 Mar 2016, 1:37 pm

I am diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, although fortunately it's not severe. I also have AS traits, which complicate an already complex diagnosis. Another term for BPD is Emotional Disregulation Disorder, which is perhaps a less loaded description of the condition.

Many of the symptoms of BPD described by earlier posters are rather clichéd, in much the same way as the popular perception of autism. Two well-known people who are often held up as having had 'classic' BPD (although neither were ever diagnosed as far as I know) were Marilyn Munro and Princess Diana. They fit the stereotypes.

Like all mental conditions, understanding of BPD is constantly evolving.



naturalplastic
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19 Mar 2016, 2:48 pm

So what does the word "border" in BPD mean?

The border between neurosis, and psychosis, as one poster said?

Or between polar opposite attitudes as someone else said?



Hyperborean
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19 Mar 2016, 3:40 pm

^ There's an ongoing debate about this. I've asked psychologists and they give varying answers. But they all say that the name will probably be changed eventually. As I said above, it's sometimes referred to as Emotional Disregulation Disorder, or Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder, both of which are more descriptive of the condition.



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20 Mar 2016, 7:57 am

Ettina wrote:
I'm autistic and have subclinical BPD and yeah, the meltdowns caused by each are different. When it's just sensory overload, I'm often not feeling any negative emotions, just feeling overwhelmed and tired and like it's all too much, and I often lose skills. (I don't have a need for routine, but I do get overloaded more easily in unfamiliar situations.) When it's the BPD tendencies, it's pretty much pure emotion, and I usually don't lose skills, but I feel like whoever upset me is my enemy and is determined to make me miserable. It almost feels like they're sending pulses of negative emotion at me. It's also worse the closer I am to the person, because if a person I'm not close to upsets me, I just leave, but if I need them emotionally then I can't leave.

The management is very different too. With autistic meltdowns/shutdowns, I've found just going somewhere quiet and doing something calming makes it better, whereas with BPD-meltdowns I need to convince myself that my loved ones care about me, often by screaming at them until they give me a hug. (Yes, I know it's not the best strategy, but I can't stop myself from doing it anyway.) And over the long term, I've mostly eliminated autistic meltdowns by just avoiding overloading situations or leaving as soon as I start getting overloaded. But there is no way I could avoid BPD triggers because they're tied to a basic psychological need (love). And even when I'm alone, I'll start getting depressed if I'm alone too long. So instead, I'm trying to treat it by learning alternate coping strategies using a treatment called DBT.


That makes a lot of sense. It sounds like you've got a really good handle on these difficulties and how they affect you. When my BPD friend get's angry it's often because she's just lost sight of how much people care about her - she just can't feel it and it's devestating for her. I really recognise the 'screaming at them until they give me a hug' thing. Must be difficult to have those feelings.


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