How much should I question my BPD diagnosis now I'm Asp.?

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Hi. The full title for this post should be: How much should I question my Borderline Personality Disorder diagnosis now that I've been diagnosed with Asperger's?

I was diagnosed with Borderline in 2014, quite quickly after becoming involved with mental health services for the first time. Two main traits in my personality were given as the reasons for this: "Difficulty with interpersonal relationships" and "Emotional intensity". At the time, I felt it fit me to a tee, and I accepted the diagnosis. But I feel like the label has caused me more problems than good ever since.

It was always suspected, by people around me, at the time that I might be autistic. After waiting an age for an assessment (and getting rubbish treatment otherwise in services), I was finally diagnosed with very clear-cut Asperger's earlier this year. Since then, I've wondered if the BPD diagnosis was ever correct. I know you can have both, but also that there's lots of crossover.

I feel like BPD is a terrible diagnosis, so although I could just disregard it personally, I do sort of want that reassessed by someone that understands autism as well as other disorders. I fully believe the interpersonal issues are actually autism, but I'm unsure how much the emotional intensity and instability comes from it?

I react very emotionally to the littlest problems, feeling the world is caving in if something goes wrong, it can even just be biting my tongue while eating. I'm not sure that's typical of Asperger's, but I also don't know if that guarantees BPD. (I get worked up a lot in mental health appointments, mainly about my lack of a social life and the lack of help I've been getting, so they undoubtedly see the emotional intensity quite a bit.)

Anyway, I'm wondering how likely it is for BPD to be misdiagnosed to someone with undiagnosed Asperger's? I'm not involved with the same people now that gave me that diagnosis, but I feel like it's constantly affected my treatment. I feel like I'm not taken seriously when I feel depressed, for example, because it's just some Borderline blip.

If I can get some hard evidence that it's often a false diagnosis, it might be possible for me to get it looked at...

I would question it VERY much. BPD and ASD are confused constantly, especially in women. It is possible to have both but it is extremely rare. Unless you are frantically fearing abandonment by other other people and your identity is constantly shifting on whim with your emotions it is very unlikely that you also have BPD with ASD. Many of the BPD-like behaviors are actually ASD behaviors like "meltdowns" and even the suicidal thoughts (which is usually a reaction from the havoc and isolation of living with an ASD).

I thought for a brief moment I had BPD after watching Girl Interrupted and my mom didn't want to talk about it with me and told me to talk about it to my therapist. But I got over it quickly and decided it was just my anxiety and this would all blow over. I didn't think BPD could all of a sudden appear and then blow over just like that. I didn't want another thing wrong with me anyway so I didn't bother looking into it.

I've read that BPD is often mistaken for autism, especially in women. I don't know about the UK but in the US too many doctors and therapists remain ignorant about autism particularly in high functioning people. I also wonder if it's a garbage can diagnosis resorted to when they can't figure out other causes.

Heh weird.. I'm in the same boat. I was diagnosed with BPD in 2014 too, and now looking like I'm getting the ASD diagnosis instead. I became so obsessed with not feeling like I fit the BPD label that I was diagnosed with OCD... which made more sense to me than BPD. So maybe you're similar? Sounds like our brains function similarly