Complex trauma vs BPD

I've been dxd with bpd and PTSD before but my former psychologist says I have complex trauma. A t told me once that they think bpd is actually complex trauma.

Anyone heard this? Or experienced this

hi halliebeth,
no beth complex trauma is different from bpd . complex trauma or C -ptsd is triggered by trauma from your past that you have to revisit in order to get over the traumatic events in your life that you went through in your childhood or after you lose a loved one . bipolar disorder is different from complex trauma .bipolar disorder is when you have symptoms of major depressive disorder . complex or chronic ptsd are the same cuz I have chronic ptsd beth cuz of my dad did to me four years ago.

Bpd is borderline personality disorder. Most borderline shave a history of abusive childhoods which is why a t told me they now they think bpd is actually complex trauma.

There has been some confusion around this topic, even among professionals; since the Complex PTSD diagnosis has been established, they have found that some persons who have been diagnosed with borderline may better fit the construct of CPTSD; however, it is not correct to suggest that they are identical or interchangeable. Here's a recent study that worked towards more precisely identifying the divide: Distinguishing PTSD, Complex PTSD, and Borderline Personality Disorder: A latent class analysis

Yes, there is a connection. My first psychiatrist treated me for c-PTSD and when I looked up the medications recently I saw they are also used to treat bpd.

I have greatly benefited from DBT .

Thank you X 1,000 for this! IMHO a lot of people have been labeled borderline when it's really complex trauma.

Welcome. While a person could technically qualify for both diagnoses, being treated for or labeled as BPD would provide little constructive utility for someone with CPTSD "only"; likewise, addressing only CPTSD symptoms in a person with BPD would also be a disservice. Looking at the constructs as being interchangeable doesn't help anybody, and neither does looking at one as being a subset of the other, as a rule:

It's also worth making the distinction between trauma, complex and otherwise, and traumatic stress disorders. Not everyone who experiences traumas has the same reaction, and as a result people who've been through even moderate trauma and haven't had any signs of PTSD or other disorders in their own life are apt to think that anyone referring to a disorder that they don't experience as "trauma" is just a lot of whining.

I'm sure there are professionals out there who say the labels don't matter.. but if that's true, it's just as easy to get it right and get on the right path! Why incur confusion in an already difficult recovery?

Ive been dxd with ptsd for childhood trauma. I have classic symptoms. Mostly nightmares, flashbacks and hardcore avoidance of the person, where it happened, and even the town she lives in. If I *have* to go there I have panic attacks and paranoia that shes coming to shoot me. its no fun.

That does sound a whole heckuva lot more like PTSD than BPD! This is from the same article I cited last:
I'm the same, keep reacting to the traumas and not to perceived abandonments. I don't have any BPD traits that I can think of, despite enduring a wealth of significant childhood trauma (and quite a few more since). People respond differently to these things.

as of right now I have bipolar 1, bpd and pstd dx. the bpd iguess they gave bc of the specific traits I have (abuse history, self-harm, instable moods, rocky relationships and actually I do freak out when I think people are mad at me/don't want to be my friend anymore. it really upsets me. ) But I fight the bpd dx because of the stigma and ijust don't think I have it.

Anecdotally speaking, I have C-PTSD (and nearly all of its symptoms) and fit the requirements for BPD, including fears of abandonment and idealizing/devaluing that typically wouldn't be seen with C-PTSD alone. Both sets of symptoms cause me many problems, and I believe I need treatment for both, though my C-PTSD is way more severe than my BPD. I've read somewhere that the two disorders can have high co-occurrence rates in psychiatric settings, so given my own experience and what information I've gathered, I definitely wouldn't say that they're mutually exclusive, as in a person cannot have both.

Just remember, doctors make mistakes, too.

And realize that psychiatry isn't an exact science. Its not like diabetes where they draw your blood, do a few tests, and come back with an exact number to tell you if you have the disorder or not.

If *you* don't believe you have a personality disorder, then don't necessarily let the doctors convince you that you have one. I've known more than a few personality disordered people over the years and I know that I don't think/behave like they do. This is backed up by other family members who say the same, that I do not act like others who have personality disorders. This is all the confirmation that I need to know that I have PTSD and not a personality disorder. I think I may have been diagnosed with one when I was in the self-injury hospital, but I believe that was erroneous as I was effed up out of my mind on drugs (enough to put a horse down) and you can't technically diagnose someone when you only see their "symptoms" while they are under the influence of drugs (psychiatric medications).

Complex trauma can look like bi polar from a short outside view. But from a long term inside knowing if you are sailing high as a kite for days and days and feeling utterly high, perfect and untouchable and then crashing and burning you know it is BPD or old school manic depression. The untouchable highs and the unworldly lows are what makes you KNOW according to my Auntie who has this.

Complex trauma is nowhere near so clear cut in the highs and lows. In fact I would go so far as to say we don't really get mega highs with complex trauma. We get days where we feel normal and that can feel like a big high, but we are not feeling above the world and going big on risky or grandiose behaviour. I've never met a truly grandiose complex trauma victim, just those amazed to be having a good day and getting the max out of it. Or avoiding a bad day and doing some serious booze/drug/sex involved escaping.

Yea I've accepted the bpd dx finally. And I do get the really big highs and horrible lows. I'd say maybe my pdoc is wrong but it's the third one to give me same dx as before

I think what matters is the symptoms.

I'm definitely an anomaly.

I have a hard time getting along with borderlines and with non-borderlines (people in a relationship with a borderline)

I think that is probably because I have some narcissism, and I understand that is poison to borderlines. However and unfortunately, I have to live with myself, hybrid that I am.

The trajectory of my treatment was I saw a psychiatrist who treated me for complex PTSD and then I saw a therapist who treated me for a nonspecific personality disorder with some traits of borderline and some traits of narcissism.

I've watched a video that explains why borderline is not given as a diagnosis.

Eh I'm not really wrapped up in calling myself a "borderline."

I just understand I have some symptoms of it and work to overcome that crap.

I found out I was first diagnosed at 2005 but no one told me...then re diagnosed in 2013.

Having it along with bipolar, PTSD and generalized anxiety makes every day hard

I have C-PTSD as well as borderline symptoms. The fear of abandonment has quieted down over the years. I had a fear of abandonment as a youth and teen and well into my 20's. I isolate a lot now and prefer being alone so abandonment is not much of an issue.

I have big abandonment abd rejection issues. Me and my t are talking about it

I have experienced this, dear. For 17 years I thought I had BPD. I finally got off of all of the meds which never helped me, only made me sick as hell all the time. I then realized that I never had BPD. I had Complex PTSD from childhood emotional neglect and emotional abuse and parents who were severe OCD workaholics. I do not pay attention to psychiatrists anymore and I don't care much what anyone else here says, I just know my own experience and it was horrid. They ruined 17 years of my life. But maybe that had to be, for me to get to the point where I know what is wrong with me so that I can fix it. I am doing EMDR. It works to free me of these horrible childhood experiences and it helps me to change and believe totally different things about myself. I discovered I had an awful stutter whenever I thought about part of the neglect and abuse. I am working to get rid of this stutter. I was amazed when it reared its' ugly head. It is horrible. I do not know what happened to me. it could have been something very bad or it could simply be the cumulative affect of how my mother treated me.

My development was slowed way down by the childhood experiences and also by the 17 years of taking the horrible BPD meds. So I am 75 years old, going on 19 in some areas of my life, maybe. I also lost both of my upper grinding teeth from bruxing because of the psychiatric drugs. I understand this is very common. I now have a dental partial to make up for those two important teeth being gone. They were gnashed to pieces by me, unknowingly. I am amazed that I am still alive. It took me a long time to get off of the psychiatric drugs. I did it under the watchful eyes of a psychiatrist who didn't mind my going off of them because I was old. The worst ones were lithium, depakote, doxepin and xanax. I believe that my doctor then was absolutely batshit crazy with dispensing all of the drugs so freely, especially the xanax. She treated me as if I was retarded. I have a very high I.Q., probably higher than the doctor's. She is Russian and I am in the state of New Mexico. Maybe that will help someone, just that one sentence. Beware!

I cannot bear my three siblings. They trigger me all the time. They are so very limited and they have no emotional intelligence whatsoever because of the way we were all brought up. They are unable to even contact me and say I am sorry you have a broken ankle." How is that for limited?! They are ashamed to ever show any feelings; they do not know how healthy it is to show feelings! I feel that EMDR has to be one of the best treatments to heal yourself from childhood trauma. I may sound opinionated here but I am allowed to be because I know what I am talking about. I have been through hell and I am coming back. I just hope that I live long enough to finish the EMDR and that I can live free of the horrible limiting feelings that were bestowed upon me by my parents - for a while! That is all I want. I wish the very best of luck to anyone who is reading this. You can put this together with the other information here and form your own opinions.

If you are on psychiatric drugs, get a good dental night guard for your teeth! Believe me when I tell you that Bipolar Disorder is a common diagnosis made whenever the docs don't understand everything or have all the answers. But they will try to make you think they do. It is a criminal diagnosis to give to anyone, in my view. No effort was ever made to ever verify that is what I had. They didn't even bother. But they made me take tests to verify that I was not on illegal drugs! They were ALL illegal because I didn't have BPD. I was sedated heavily immediately. I was too heavily sedated to ever question any of this. For 17 years.

difference between complex trauma (CPTSD) and BPD here in america is now mute. simply put in 2013 the american psychiatric association threw out the diagnosis of complex PTSD. there is no diagnostic label of this here in america now.

since 2013 when a treatment provider says someone has complex trauma they are now using the new definition that complex trauma is any trauma that has many different elements to it. using a non triggering situation to show what I mean...

if a person throws a ball and gets hit in the head and gets a bruise thats one singular trauma. but if the same person throws a ball, gets hit in the head, resulting in bruising, broken bones and a concussion this is said to be a complex trauma (a trauma that has many different parts to it)

anyone here in america that has a previous diagnosis of Complex PTSD can contact their treatment providers who can explain to them how their situation transfers over to the new diagnostics for trauma and stress related disorders and what their new diagnosis label is.

Out side of the USA there may still be other locations that still use the diagnostic label of CPTSD