[crystalrose]

Someone said to me cptsd is similar to bpd! how is that?? i disagree strongly.

[crystalrose]

don't want to be labelled with bpd. I find the comparisons insulting. No offence intended to those with bpd.

[crystalrose]

[Elysium]

CrystalRose...

I have a T who seems to believe that CPTSD and BPD are very similar, and I agree. But I do not believe they are the same.

Being that CPTSD is a relatively new area of research and BPD has been around a bit longer and is more widely accepted as a diagnosis, people with CPTSD often are misdiagnosed with BPD.

My understanding, from the reading and research I have done on the topic is that BPD is a personality disorder...it is who you are, contrast to CPTSD which is a traumatic stress injury.

The easiest way it has been explained that I've found in research is that BPD is CPTSD without the history of trauma. The reading I have done is that it is being considered that if a person had mental illness before any trauma/without trauma and their symptoms and behaviors fit the criteria, then it is labled BPD. But if the symptomology and behaviors does not begin until AFTER the trauma experience(s), it is labled as CPTSD. This has just been my understanding that I have taken from the reading/research I have done on this topic.

So, yes they are in a sense related...but they are not the same. One begins in childhood (prior to any traumatization)and is exacerbated by experiences in adolescence. The other stems from trauma and can begin at any point in time in life.

Being that CPTSD is such a new topic of research, the ideas regarding the similarities and differences between the two diagnoses has not been solidified and you will find many a practitioner that say they are the same and many that say they are not. I think it is at this point due to a lack of knowledge, research, and understanding.

I hope this has helped. Here is a link with some info.

http://www.aapel.org/bdp/BLptsdUS.html

Great question and thank you for asking!!