Greetings,

I joined this forum a while back when it was suggested I was bipolar by a clinician (MS in psychology). After a thorough eval by a psychiatrist, it was determined I was borderline instead. When I was first dx'd with bipolar, I naturally read a LOT of stuff about the disorder and kept thinking to myself, this just does not sound like me. I was esp. confused b/c I have ALWAYS needed and wanted 8 hrs of sleep, so that whole part about going through energetic periods of reduced sleep requirements was really baffling.

The reason I am writing is that I do not engage in any overt self-injury behaviors, but I am still definitely (in my opinion, and a psychiatrist's view) borderline. When I read through the checklist on borderline personality disorder, and read articles on it, it all makes sense now. I knew something is wrong with me, because no matter how hard I have tried, I usually end up alienating people (not always... I do have friends) and generally have a difficult time controlling my emotions, esp. when I feel criticized. I have improved a lot over the past few years, but I am still not where I need to be, and now I know why!

While doing my own research, I came across two research articles w/ important findings regarding bipolar/ borderline diagnoses. Investigators believe, based on their research, that a significant number of people who are actually borderline have been misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder. The reverse is also possible, and does happen, but is much less common. Again, there are a statistically significant number of people who have been misdiagnosed w/ bipolar disorder who are actually borderline.

I am writing because I believe that bipolar disorder, like ADD and ADHD before, has clearly become the "it" disorder over the past decade or more in the psych "industry." Suddenly, it seems everyone has it, and I know this phenomenon has been discussed before here. Additionally, I believe many people write off the possibility of exploring that they may have borderline personality disorder because they do not cut or engage in other overt forms of self-injury, a notable hallmark of the disorder. As has already undoubtedly been pointed out numerous times on the borderline personality disorder forum, it is entirely possible to be borderline and not to engage in cutting or other tangible forms of self injury.

Again, I realize I am probably not stating anything new, but since a misdiagnose in this particular case completely alters the treatment landscape -- psychomeds for bi-polar (largely thought to involved chemical imbalances) versus psychotherapy for borderline personality disorder (with no widely prescribed pharma treatment), it is critically important that patients be properly diagnosed.

Diagnosis seems to be such a difficult process for these two disorders, and this is clearly compounded by the fact that so many of the symptoms are similar/ overlap. I am pretty happy I have the right diagnosis. I know treatment is going to be very difficult to undertake, and I will have to find the right clinician (not easy.... a lot of biases and prejudice out there against borderline patients), but at least I am not being led down an entirely blind alley.

Thanks for reading my post, and good luck to everyone on here!!

Ryan