Article on the Differences between BPD and BD

The differences between Bipolar Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder come up from time to time, so I found an article from NY Presbyterian Hospital written by an expert on BPD on the differences. I find it to be both accurate and fascinating. I would suggest reading it for anyone curious about the differences:

The difference between bipolar and borderline personality disorder

Oops, I'm not sure the link works. If not, try Googling Distingishing between BPD and Bipolar Disorder, like I did, and see if you come up with this article from NY Presbyterian Hospital.

I hope this is helpful!

Thanks so much!

Yes, this topic comes up often.

BTW, the link works just fine!

Thanks again!

WC

The link works fine for me, too. Thank you for this post.
My personal confusion is about "stability". Yes, I have BD. In between episodes, or even during episodes, I am basically functional. Yet, it seems to be my nature to be highly sensitive to everything...not only relationships, but to sights, smells, the feeling of a fresh breeze on my skin. A psychiatrist once referred to me as having an "artistic personality".

So. How much is a "disorder" and how much is just who I am? That is my constant question, one that thus far I have not received an answer to.

Interesting read!

Disorder VS who I am. I am deeply struggling with this as well. If I didnt have all these issues, who would I be? What would be left? Sometimes it feels like there would be nothing at all.

Thanks for posting this! It was really interesting to read, because my last Pdoc and T diagnosed me with BD but it didn't feel completely right. It makes sense why a lot of the times I just feel so g*****n unstable.

Sometimes i think my mom has BPD- the lashing out the dont leave me the overall drama she likes to share with the rest of us...

Excellent article, Gabyunbound. I've always been a little perplexed why they confuse people, because they really are quite different. I think a lot of it stems from the word "mood". Like in BPD, it's a transient reactive emotional thing, whereas in BP it's more a sustained state of being. But people don't tend to think about the range of meaning it can have.

He covered a lot of good points like stable periods vs a constant situation.

Thanks for recommending it.

I could see it being difficult to distinguish these two when in an episode, which is probably why the DSM says personality disorders should not be diagnosed during any sort of mood episode, unless there is a clear history. I definitely was questioning if I had BPD during a mixed episode because I just felt so reactive and had such a negative view of myself. I think my psychiatrist was as well based on his questioning and the fact that he said he didn't think it was the meds but emotional regulation issues. Except now that I am out of that episode I don't have those problems, and have a much more positive view of myself, circumstances, and am much less emotionally reactive. Although I am sure I can still work on emotional regulation and thought patterns in CBT. I am certainly not perfect, or implying I have no work to do in therapy to manage my moods.

That sounds miserable. I know, I am positive, that you would be something - not nothing.

Great article, much more in depth and clear than anything else I have read. I dont love that it reinforces the fact that I have both which bothers me a lot. At first I thought the psychiatrist just hated me when he diagnosed the borderline a while after the bipolar. Of course thinking he did that just to spite me and becoming outrageously angry was even more proof lol. I have somewhat accepted it but its just so much after spending so much time thinking I was just an emotional, moody, clingy, negative, depressed person. Not that any of that sounds good, just less scary than official names I guess.

Thanks for this! I don't have BPD but the article was very interesting.

"If they are in a manic state, they might be up all night writing page after page of a novel or playing music, with a sense that they have passed into a special state of genius."
This sentence was so relatable it made me laugh... Later it's easy to realize that I was no genius.

This sounds so tough. I don't usually struggle with this, but I completely didn't recognize myself this past year in that mixed episode and I really was thrown into an identity crisis for a bit. It was a deeply painful experience. One way I am thinking about it is like Maslow's hierarchy of needs. We must first have our basic needs met, than our psychological needs, then our self fulfillment needs. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs | Simply Psychology. When we are unwell we are further down on the pyramid, and by being stuck there, we cannot fully grow to our greatest potential. But once those needs are managed (not saying disorders need to be gone, just taken care of enough that they don't consume us) we can get to the rest. I guess what I am saying is I think we are more than our disorders, and without them we wouldn't be nothing, we could just grow even more into the best version of ourselves.