What is BPD? I have it.

I saw on my chart today at the mental health center that the psychiatrist has one of my diagnoses as borderline personality disorder (BPD). I've never been told this or even discussed treatment for it. I just Googled BPD and will read up on it to see what it is. If you have been diagnosed with BPD would you mind sharing how it affects you and how you work through it with your therapist. The small bit I've read rings very true for me and I'm wondering now when I tell my T would there be some benefit to my therapy to now know this diagnosis.

Wow, I'm really shocked and sorry that you found out like this! I don't understand any professional who doesn't discuss their diagnoses with clients as a matter of course.

If you go to the borderline personality disorder section of the forum, there are some threads about books on BPD, with people saying which ones they found more sympathetic and easier to read. Sorry, I don't know how to post the links without losing this message! My personal opinion is that I would be very cautious indeed about reading random stuff online- a lot of the things said about BPD are deeply offensive (and often untrue) and at best very hard to hear, and I think it's best to read a book by a knowledgeable and sympathetic professional or a client who has experienced similar difficulties. Whatever you read, make sure it's recent- until the development of DBT and other successful specific treatments (schema therapy, mentalization-based therapy, transference-focused therapy), personality disorders were thought to be life long and untreatable, so a lot of the older material is very bleak indeed.

My personal experience is that I don't have a diagnosis of BPD, but I have therapy which is for BPD (DBT and now schema therapy). I would want to make sure that the therapy I was having had evidence of successfully treating BPD, but that's just me. However, before even deciding that I had BPD, I would want to have an indepth discussion with the psychiatrist who diagonsed me (and their reasons for this) and with my T who knew me well, and also make my own decision about whether it made sense.

I really hope this diagnosis, if you feel it fits, is helpful to you, and to your work with T

It's important to note that symptoms of personality disorders are on a continuum, meaning that different people exhibit more/less symptomatology of the disorder. Your Psychiatrist should discuss severity of symptoms and treatment modalities with you.

This is very true. My PDoc told me that I don't have BPD however I do definitely have lots of Borderline Peronality tendencies...

I'm sorry you found out that way. I think you need to talk to your T about how he came to that diagnosis. If youre looking for info on bpd I would suggest the bpd forum here is a good place to start. There are lot experiences of what it is like to live with bpd. There is loads of stuff on the internet too but you should be selective about which sites you get onto. There are also lots of books on bpd which I find helpful. With any new diagnosis we will have questions about it and I think the best person to speak to is your so he can clarify for you. There is tons of support on the bpd forum too.

Here is a sticky note posted at the top of the Borderline Personality Disorders forum: http://forums.psychcentral.com/showthread.php?t=115908

My therapist doesn't offer or dwell on diagnosis. I only know because I read books and thought that it sounded like BPD fit me and she agreed and had thought so for a while also.

To me, BPD is simply a phrase to describe how we interract with others and the intense storm of emotions we experience in our inner world.

My therapist helps me by encouraging me to share anything and everything in my inner world. We look at the fears and anger that are behind so many of my misperceptions and difficulties in relationships. She is just very accepting, patient, caring and provides me a safe place to talk about how my life is and how I wish it to be.
The safety and acceptance of the therapy relationship eases my anxieties about the rest of my world. I've developed a better sense of who I am. I have more self-confidence which means that I am not so dependent on others for a sense of identity, or for feedback, validation.
She's helping me grow, to 'grow up', even at this late age!

I have BPD as well......my pdoc gave me a diagnosis of tendencies, but my T put it as definite on her records because she feels like it is. I mean, after all, I have 7 of the 9 definable traits of it, so I obviously have it. I have a very stormy, intense emotional life and the diagnosis fits......
Although as T said after I had the diagnosis, i was still me.....this was just a guide to mental health professionals how to treat me and understand what was going on with my brain/mind/heart....
We don't discuss my BPD too often in session now, although it does come up from time to time, when T will say this is something that relates to the diagnosis you don't like to talk about! And one reason I no longer get hugs has to do with the BPD and me turning what could be an appropriate thing into an inappropriate thing by attaching undue importance and intensity to it.....
I am sorry too you found out that way; that seems like something that should have been, should be, discussed more thoroughly!

Having dealt with therapists and therapy for quite a few years to get help with depression, I have heard this diagnosis more than once.

This one time, I went to a psychiatrist for meds and he kept me waiting more than 1 hour. When I finally got in the office, I complained. He said, "this is part of my method. You don't like it, go elsewhere." I said, "well that's a bit arrogant don't you think?" and he wrote something down on his pad. I said, "did you just write that down?" and he said, "I wrote down that you have borderline personality disorder!!!"

That... uh.... guy.. got sued recently for overprescribing adderal and other amphetamines, and I don't think he's in practice anymore though.

Another time, I got kept on a 72 hour hold for suicidal thoughts and had all these horrible conversations with a first-year med student about my supposed "narcissistic and borderline personality disorder." I have no idea where she got that idea I have NPD, as most of my therapy to date has focused around trying to make me more assertive and confident. I forgive her. But it freaked me out.

The third time I heard this diagnosis of "borderline traits" was recently from a qualified therapist, who is... guess what... an expert in BPD. I sought him out specifically to find out if there was ANY truth to this diagnosis, plus I'm willing to be open minded if it's true. He gave me a very scary diagnostic process that included cursing me out and saying angrily, "you have personality issues,' and based on my reactions to that, diagnosed me with "maybe borderline traits."

Honestly if you are of a certain age, category, and personality, and piss a mental health provider off, that is one way to getting that diagnosis.

The other route though is having issues with self injury, impulsive behavior, chronic suicidal thoughts, relationship problems, eating disorders or another issue, and working closely with a T/ pdoc to remedy that.

I hope you are able to follow path #2! This diagnosis might really apply to you, it might not, but please don't see it as something to label you. It is for your possible benefit, and yours only.

I always like to know where things come from so maybe you will find this bit of info interesting. A person develops BPD because they are very sensitive and then grew up in a non validating environment. While children are growing up they are trying to figure out who they are and how they fit into the world. Those with BPD received "crazy" feedback from caregivers so they couldn't make sense easily out of who they are and how they fit into the world. I think that this developmental process can still occur as an adult if the person continues this work of figuring these things out. (And you have to start where you are at).

Thanks so much, everybody, for sharing your experiences and all of the very helpful information. I'm sorry, I'm just getting back online, so it took me a while to respond.

I just came from my session and I talked about the BPD diagnosis with my T. She said that over the past month and a half she's wondered if I have BPD. She finally decided that she wouldn't label me with BPD, but that I do display some of the symptoms related to BPD. She's worked with me long enough to be able to see my behavior over a period of time and make that determination better than I think anyone could.

The psychiatrist that I see is not a very good doctor. I don't know that I really put a whole lot of trust in much of what he says. He's not a good listener and he seems frustrated all the time. I guess that is how it goes when you see someone for free at a state facility. He humiliated me yesterday right at the beginning of my appointment and I couldn't even talk after that.

I feel sorry for the people who have this facility as their only avenue for mental health care. I'm so over the moon that I have a private practice therapist that I see twice a week, because if I had to depend only on the care at the state mental health center I would probably have given up by now.

Thanks again, for always being there for me. I really appreciate each one of you.