The term Borderline was coined before they actually understood it to be an illness all of its own. They thought it was bordering...hmm what were the two? psychosis and nourosis? I guess I need to look it up again. Anyway, since way back in the 50's and 60's they have discovered that Borderline Personality Disorder is neither of those but an illness all of its own and needs to be treated differently then either of the two things I can't remember the names of. Unfortunately the term "borderline" stuck which has lead to a lot of confusion.

A lot of people with BPD do self injure. It is interesting though to see how many other people with other illnesses to self injure. I think that they get lumped into borderline because the illness itself is so...fuzzy. It manifests itself in so many different ways. No borderline patient is the same and so many of the symptoms readily cross over into other illnesses. For instance I went to a bi-polar support group for a year and fit in perfectly. The only difference was that their illness could be managed with medicine and mine could not. Yes, medication can manage many of the symptoms but you will never convince me that they can fix the problem. When I got off meds I found that I couldn't continue with the bi-polar group because meds are essential to them and the meds work. I didn't feel like I could share my experience of getting off meds so I felt outcast and that isn't good for someone with bpd.

Anyway, there is a lot of good information out there on BPD. In fact Doc John has a discription of it on this site that says everything that you might find elsewhere on the web. There are a lot of good books too. Start with Lost in the Mirror. My favorite book is New Hope for Borderline Personality Disorder. It is talks alot about our wellness rather then how sick we are. That is important.
Carrie