My husband and I both are diagnosed with bipolar disorder. My husband also has BPD which certainly complicates the BP. But his bigger issues are major physical/medical illnesses. He has had reflex sympathetic dystrophy since 1985 following a work injury. He lives his life in debilitating pain and has an implanted pump that bathes his spine with morphine at all times just to keep the pain level down about 50%. He has terrible problems with high blood pressure and diabetes on top of everything else. The chronic physical ailments really are far more debilitating and much harder to control and deal with than the mental ailments, and they complicate the mental illness issues because the chronic pain, high blood pressure, and diabetes symptoms also affect how you feel emotionally.