I am diagnosed with both AS and BPD...

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I also have a problem with my brain not wanting to shut off.
This is what I do.

close your eyes and imagine a train and put all your thoughts on that train, then imagine the train with your thought speeding off with your thoughts at top speed. Dont stop the train image until your mind is empty and clear.

It works very well for me.

Jojo

I've had six full neuropsychological evaluations. I was Dx-ed with Borderline PD on the first one I had at 23. BPD is less commonly Dx-ed in males, but obviously the psychologists who tested me felt I met the Dx criteria.

I was Dx-ed with Schizotypal personality disorder on the next four evaluations and Schizoid PD (with schizotypal and avoidant features) on my own most recent evaluation about a month ago.


I've always believed I exhibit many characteristics of both schizotypal and schizoid, so I think these Dx-es were more or less accurate. I don't think I exhibit many which are associated with BPD, but for whatever reason, I received that Dx on my first evaluation.


I'm guessing it had much, if not everything, to do with my answers on the particular MMPI I took during the first eval.

Agreed. I didn't like the MMPI, either. They got my personality mostly right; but there are so many reasons they might've come up with what they did--people with answers identical to mine could be quite different from me.

There's another, more unfortunate, link between autism and borderline personality: The risk of misdiagnosis. Specifically, women who have autism but not BPD may easily have some traits that mimic BPD, and be misdiagnosed.

Meltdowns can mimic BPD mood swings.
Self-injury is present among both groups.
Desperately trying to keep relationships can be the result of BPD fear of abandonment... or the result of autism's poor social skills.
Autism and BPD can both involve dissociation; autism during shutdowns or due to a sensory disconnect with one's body; BPD with the regular depersonalization/derealization they describe in the psych textbooks.
Both groups are prone to depression, BPD because of their poor self-regulation, autism because they face prejudice, both because of high rates of abuse.

I had a BPD misdiagnosis several years ago, and was given medication I didn't need and group therapy that didn't help. I have in fact a very strong, self-contained identity, and don't have emotional dysregulation issues, only problems inhibiting emotional expression--the emotions themselves aren't out of proportion. I'm also a stable introvert, can be happy on my own, and spend most of my time alone. Currently, my therapists can't believe I ever had a BPD diagnosis... In the long term, though, I think it's been a good experience for me, because it exposed me to the way BPD patients are often stereotyped and mistreated, assumed to be immature and unreliable children rather than adults... I think this is completely unacceptable, and the psychology profession needs to shape up and treat them like worthwhile individuals, because that's what they are.

So, yeah, there's the misdiagnosis issue. People don't jump to autism when a woman comes into an emergency room mid-shutdown with self-injury scars--they think "borderline" and put that on her record.

Yeah... before I found out about Asperger's I did wonder a few times if I had Borderline Personality Disorder. But I think it was a combination of my Aspergers and the fact that I was really depressed (better now).

Re: the shutting off the brain thing. I have used this technique since I was a little kid (success rate is not 100% but it helps a lot). The biggest problem is when I'm lying in bed trying to fall asleep (if it happens during the day, it's better to do some activity that interferes with the brain cycling). Anyway, so when I am laying in bed what I do is mentally visualize what looks like a TV screen with static on it (the black and white "snow" like if a channel is not coming in at all). I just fill up my entire mental space with that image. This probably works better if you are a visual person, for me the intrusive thoughts are kind of like, as long as we're on TV analogy, constantly flipping images at extremely high speed as the thoughts lead from one to the next). Just keep refocusing on the static and let it block out everything else. If I can maintain this, it generally helps me get to sleep.

If it's something really pressing and specific that has to be addressed, I might have to get up and write it down. However, I try to avoid that if it's late at night because the writing it down could go on for hours depending on what it is.

I was diagnosed with BPD along with many other things. I wasn't officially diagnosed with AS but I'm almost positive I have that because i fit most all the major characteristics of it. I suspect that some of the people here who are diagnosed with BPD may not really have it. Thinking in black & white seems more common with people who have AS than typical NTs who don't have BPD. Having meltdowns is very common with AS & it's possible that an Aspie's meltdowns could be mistaken for Borderline personality. It's possible a lot of the Borderline symptoms could be temporary & caused by things going on in the Aspie's life. I was suffering a sever(probably psychotic) depression during the time I was diagnosed with BPD. I was going true a very difficult time with something & was very confused & lost. When my depression left; I quit having a lot of the BPD symptoms or they became much less sever at least. I doubt I would be diagnosed with BPD rite now if I were to see a new doc & get tested. I've been much more stable for the last few years than I was. I think part of it was because I was(& still am) very behind with maturity than most people but I did some maturing & growing up. It's not uncommon for Apsie's to be behind with maturity & being immature could make a person appear to have some BPD symptoms. Imagine a 13year-old kid who's going true their 1st relationship & it's very serous & they are having relationship problems; lots of people would not think it's abnormal for the kid to be having lots of emotional & other problems because of it. Now imagine an adult in there 20s who's having the same problems as that kid; they would appear to have Borderline Personality but what if the adult is in their 1st relationship & the person is very immature & behind because of AS/autism. Does the person really have BPD or is it just a phase that the person will grow from? Sometimes the professionals just look at the symptoms instead of looking at the bigger picture. That's what happened with me witch is why I used it as an example

I have been diagnosed with Bipolar and almost positive I'm also AS.

when i try to turn my brain off i just make whatever i'm thinking of slow down, i imagine it in slow-motion, getting slower, until the thought disappears.
this is how i get to sleep, otherwise i wouldn't sleep at all.

I've been diagnosed with both. Some days I just think, 'ok I've got this thing, just got to live with it' and other days I am so agitated that I want to scream in my psychologist's face that he's lying. By doing this though I am proving I have BPD. As someone else said, I wouldn't wish this condition on anyone as it is a constant struggle for me. I never know when my mood is going to change because it happens so quickly. I am sometimes frightened of myself. I think the reason I hate the diagnosis so much is because of it's association with sleeping around which I have never done. That's what the very few people who know about the condition think it is. I tend to keep my BPD a secret whereas I am very open about my AS, however this is mainly because society still has a long way to go before they accept people with mental illnesses.

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I have HFA, ADHD, OCD & Tourette syndrome. I love animals, especially my bunnies and hamster. I skate in a roller derby team (but I'll try not to bite )

i think there is a great deal of overlap between the conditions, to be honest. i read that women are often misdiagnosed as BPD before ASD is discovered. i was informalled DXed with AS, then formally DXed with BPD (which is now looking like a misdiagnosis).

even just reading over a variety of threads here on WP, you can get a sense that aspies often have a few of the stereotypically BPD characteristics. on WP, people discuss self-harm, drug use, sexual extremes, suicidal tendencies, and meltdowns. and you can observe people behaving impulsively, reacting histrionically or with violent anger, mistrusting others, showing black & white thinking, idolozing people, being uncertain of their identity etc...

i think it is also possible to have both, because BPD is sort of exacerbated or caused by childhood conditions, and AS is inborn. since they have a different source, there is no reason why they couldn't be comorbid.