Oh gosh, I couldn't agree more with this. They are TOO quick to slap a diagnosis in order to have some sort of foundation to map out a "treatment" plan for you. In reality, one diagnosis doesn't fit all. I believe I have BPD tendencies at times, but I also tend to fall under Avoidant Personality. Also, if you look at the DSM for MDD, a lot of the traits are confusingly similar to BPD. So how do they know I'm not just extremely depressed? There's no way of really knowing unless they monitor me 24/7.
In my experience, when my T mentioned she had been concerned that I had BPD, but no longer felt that way, I fell apart. She had no idea it affected me this way and I didn't either until I was processing it in the days following that session. I got to the point where I became so suicidal because my research on BPD and trying to understand it, destroyed me. Everything online makes treatment seem extremely difficult and even impossible for BPD. I felt like it was a "behavioral death sentence".
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Originally Posted by Favorite Jeans
Usually in order for something to meet diagnostic criteria in psychiatry, the problem needs to be severe enough that it significantly interferes with a person's ability to function. Otherwise the features of the disorder are just "traits". So you can say that someone has borderline traits without having a full blown personality disorder. Another example: maybe someone is a little compulsive about handwashing but they are able to work and have friends and go out and not need medical attention for their raw hands and they can tolerate their anxiety if there's no sink nearby. You could say that they have obsessive-compulsive traits but they don't meet the criteria for the disorder.
I've noticed that a lot of T's play fast and loose with diagnostic terminology. IMHO this is generally to the detriment of the client. I think it's usually better, especially with personality disorders, to describe the problematic thought process, behaviour or pattern that it is to slap a label on it.
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