Hello

Hello everyone. I’m new to this group but not new to PC. My GP diagnosed me with bipolar disorder a couple of years ago but I just spent 5 days in an IP program and the doctor believes I may also have bpd. My IP program was not great and I left with no diagnosis after speaking to a pdoc twice for about 20 minutes. I’m just looking to figure out what’s wrong and make it better. I do find that everything I’ve read about bpd makes sense for me. So I just wanted to introduce myself since I’ll probably hang out around here a bit now.

Welcome to the subgroup.

This a good place to hang out When you say GP, you mean general practitioner?

This is my experience as I have BPD. It and Bipolar can be hard to diagnose and missed. ADHD at an early age is heavily mis diagnosed, as I was.

I never was accurately accessed and found out until i was 36, 20 years later. GP's have NO BUSINESS diagnosing disorders. I found a amazing DR and Psychiatrist that specialized in Bipolar and BPD. I did a full eval with him for 2 hours.

I would possible find a therapist that specializes in BPD and DBT. There you may find a referral to a good DR that may have clear answers and a path to make it better.

GP's don't have the training to fully diagnosis or write scrips for mental illness, especially Bipolar. They should refer to a psych Dr.
It depends on licensing. Some therapists can diagnose as well. My bipolar was diagnosed by my LPC (counselor) and she referred me to psych Dr to review and prescribe.

If time with pdocs is limited to about an hour in total I would trust my psychologist, who sees me on a weekly basis, a lot more to come up with a diagnosis.

But I was generally wondering under what circumstances a psychiatrist would be in a better position to assess my psychological condition than a psychologist? Psychiatrists prescribe meds, psychologists don't, but apart from that, what's the basis of expecting a better qualified diagnosis from a pdoc?

Thanks for the welcome. My GP has some specialization in psychological problems so I’d trust her more than a regular GP and she’s known my history for many years so she is more equipped to diagnose me than some psychiatrist who spent 10 minutes with me. I’m going to ask for a referral for a full evaluation to see if I can get to the bottom of this. I just want to feel better, but getting a proper diagnosis is probably the first step.

I see you are also Canadian. I found the best book for BPD was BPD for dummies, as I read it I kept nodding to myself. Also, if you are in Edmonton, I can give you the name of a pdoc who specializes in BPD.

edit to add: I got the book from the library before purchasing my own copy