BP vs BPD

I've heard from some folks with BPD that the latter name is coming in to favor, but that they are the same thing. Because... "borderline", what does that mean, you know?!

Thanks - i prefer the "emotionally unstable personality disorder" title. This is what I am - but sometimes it is caused by my bipolar symptoms too. I don't actually really know.
All i know is that i want to be happy.

How does a pdoc or T then dx a patient as bipolar, especially after they had decided that BPD is the dx? What makes the 2 stand apart?

Bp & BPD are sometimes a dual diagnosis, my son had both. Bpd is not an easy illness wouldn't wish either on my worst enemy

I think it's kind of a contensious issue right now. When I worked in Los Angeles, they were starting to go through and reevaluate all the BPD patients in the public clinic to see what was really going on. A large number, maybe half improved greatly with medications for Bipolar disorder, but still had some of the characteristics for BPD that wereenough to cause them significant problems in life. about a quarter walked out on the meds (meaning taking them) with, essentially, no diagnosis of BPD any longer but with a shiny new BP diagnosis. A smaller number came away with PTSD who had been basically branded with BPD because they were female, and what was left was a much smaller core of "true BPD". For a long time, it was what you diagnosed a woman with if you couldn't figure out what else was wrong and you had a history of trauma.

We are dealing with something similar when it comes to diagnosing children with ADHD and bipolar. It comes to basically this: if they get worse on the stimulants, they are probably bipolar. With teenagers, if they get worse on the standard psychopharmocicals, than they might well be ""emotionally unstable" PD in the making. Some kids just get a heck of a lot more grief from their inner workings
For me, it's really frustrating. It doesn't always feel really clear cut, since all we do is diagnose symptoms, not the real illness. And symptoms, well, everyone describes those just a wee bit differently. HUGGS all.

Hello there

Borderline personality is supposed to be no longer a diagnosis of exclusion.Actually things have got a bit better treatment wise for people with this diagnosis. The best treatment is group therapy in a therapeutic community. This can be done daily. All different types of therapies are used including DBT which is a combination of therapies including CBT. It is also based on Buddist principals. In most TC's they prefer people to be off meds, but recognise that for some people meds may be helpful.

Group work seems to work extremely well. Being around other people who are experiencing similar symptoms is useful. It is not an easy option and can be very exhausting facing up to demons, but the others in the group will protect and support.

I hope you get the treatment you are looking for and deserve.

Thanks donut.
I've been on anti-dep's and I felt they helped. But then I became to unstable on just Anti-deps, and my dx was changed to bipolar. So I was put on a mood stabiliser.
Still adjusting my meds, but whatever my dx is, I cannot imagine not being on meds...
I also see a T weekly.

Not quite sure how the mental health professionals are able to discern between a patient being BP or BPD???

A lot of it is history; have you more or less always been like that? have you had a growing up that would make learning to handle strong emotions difficult (could write book explaining that more in depth, so I'll leave it there)? Do you have realtives who also have a hard time managing their emotions? In addition, people with BPD often have a very unstable sense of who they are that runs quite deeply, and they tend to take on what most would think to be basic personality characteristics (like sexual orienntation, extroversion/introversion, etc) based on who they are with at the moment. They often have a very pathological sensitivity to abandonment, and have a tendency to see people and issues in a very black and white manner; people are either all good or all bad, and a person can easily go from being one to the other depending on what is happening. The DSM has a general checklist, but there is a good deal more to the disorder than that,as there usually is with everything that has to do with people.
Bipolars don't tend to have the identity issues and the abandonment issues, if they come up, tend to be restricted to depressive and mixed episodes. They also don't tend the have the black and white thinking except at the extremes of the swings. Generally, strong emotions can be a problem, because out stress systems tend to get "reset" making our adrenaline systems overreact, making us a bit more labie emotionally even when our moods are "normal", so the perfectly calm bipolar in a normal phase is not all that common. Yep, professionals can get us mixed up, but these are the biggees when it cames to the differences! HUGGGGSSSSSSS!

BP and BPD really have more in common than I imagined! No wonder the right choice can slip.
But does it really matter, as long as one gets help for the symptoms? There are no perfect meds or therapy for either.
Psychiatric disorders all have so many overlaps, really a mess. The DSM probably needs a lot of reconsideration - more than it will likely get.

Lonegael - it's quite hard to answer your questions. I don't think I've ever been particularly close to my parents. I grew up a bit of a loner, and at the time it was fine (High School Years) I guess there were a lot of social skills I missed out on.
Now I battle with abandonment issues. I also am very much influenced by my boyfriend. I take on a different identity around him.
My parents and I have a "professional" relationship.

It's OK. My questions weren't realy aimed at you in particular, they were examples of the types of questions one considers in asking about a persons dev. history. Sorry I didn't make that clear, hon! ii wouldn't dream of tossing that at you here, I'm not working on site! Huggggssss!