Is it possible....? (BPD)

Is it possible for someone to have BPD and also be highly functioning in life? Without ever undergoing treatment for it?
For example: maintain a job, get along with most coworkers, maintain school (grades, hw, attendance, etc.), and have at least a handful of healthy relationships?

This confuses me a bit. I know I am not the only one, because I have done so much reading on this subject and many are misdiagnosed and even people who are diagnosed as Borderline fail to fully understand their disorder.

In my opinion it is one of the trickiest diagnoses out there for therapists/psychs.
It seems to be the "catch all" diagnosis when all others don't quite fit.

It's nothing something I can relate to in terms of a particular diagnosis. Though when I was younger I felt very opposite to descriptions of BPD, but I've realised that even though I never present that way, some of my thinking is not dissimilar to what fits a BPD diagnosis.

I think a diagnosis can help in some ways, but they are so far from perfect. There are many ways that I fit the diagnosis given to me...and quite a few ways that I don't. I feel like a diagnosis can give some guidance about treatment, but so much more depends on the individual.

So I think it’s easily possible that someone fits enough of the categories of one diagnosis to be given that particular diagnosis while still being very different from that diagnosis in many ways as well.

An intelligent and motivated person can sometimes overcome (or at least mask) things that would otherwise set them apart. It can be very hard work, though.

There are highly functional BPD but usually they also share some other personality traits such as NPD too.

It depends what you call functioning I guess. I have BPD and I did well in school, managed to get a university degree (though I struggled with alot of issues throughout), have a husband and children and have had had reasonable jobs using my degree. However I haven't worked full time in about 12 years due to not being able to cope with the stress and unpredictability of my symptoms. T says that I am a high functioning BPD. I don't think it makes the symptoms any less intense though, you're just better at masking it.

There are spectrum's of BPD. I am on the low end meaning I am high functioning. I hold a job and have been married for 11 years. I never had any treatment up until last year. Did not even know my problem was BPD but my cPTSD gives me more problems. I actually sought help for my bulimia. I am serious issues that cause me serious problems but still manage to be a productive member of society. I can only imagine what an amazing success I could have been without these disorders.

I've never been formally diagnosed with BPD but i think i have a ton of the symptoms and it has been alluded to by several therapists. I mask it all very very well, something i had to do growing up, i can tell when my thinking is just off the wall about things and i know my natural overreaction to things would be frowned upon and i'd lose people or be disliked and that is a very strong pull for me, so i store it all inside instead. I have managed to have a very positive very secure and loving marriage free of all the BPD stuff but i'm not so secure with friendships or women in general. And the therapy relationship is absolutely horrendous for me, my insecurity, fear of abandonment, love and hate extremes, etc etc are in full flow. But that is the only place the full extent of the BPD comes out. I think it's because i need to be vulnerable in that room, and because it is somewhat a parental dynamic which really threatens me.

I didn't start therapy until I was in my 30's. Being diagnosed BPD was a shock to me as I had stable relationships, didn't SI, binge, or anything like that. I'm married, have children and grandchildren. I have a master's degree. I always worked in low paying jobs in spite of my degree, so that may be due to the BPD. The T's I saw always said I was high functioning. It was primarily my attachments issues with my Ts, and family history that led to the diagnosis.

It is very possible. I had a diagnosis of BPD and was able to hide it very well at school, work, community, church, etc. However, it was ripping my relationships (and me) apart, so I sought treatment which was very effective. It's been 10 years since I first sought treatment and I have not carried a diagnosis of BPD for 5 years.

Usually in order for something to meet diagnostic criteria in psychiatry, the problem needs to be severe enough that it significantly interferes with a person's ability to function. Otherwise the features of the disorder are just "traits". So you can say that someone has borderline traits without having a full blown personality disorder. Another example: maybe someone is a little compulsive about handwashing but they are able to work and have friends and go out and not need medical attention for their raw hands and they can tolerate their anxiety if there's no sink nearby. You could say that they have obsessive-compulsive traits but they don't meet the criteria for the disorder.

I've noticed that a lot of T's play fast and loose with diagnostic terminology. IMHO this is generally to the detriment of the client. I think it's usually better, especially with personality disorders, to describe the problematic thought process, behaviour or pattern that it is to slap a label on it.

Yay! Great to hear.

That's awesome, congrats!!!

That's how I feel at times. I have had several jobs and it always seems to be the "same problems" with every job. It's great for a little while, then I begin to feel overwhelmed with the work or amount of time required to put in and eventually run away from it. My T has wondered if I have BPD but eventually out-ruled it. My pDoc never thought I had it in the first place.
It's all so confusing.

Oh gosh, I couldn't agree more with this. They are TOO quick to slap a diagnosis in order to have some sort of foundation to map out a "treatment" plan for you. In reality, one diagnosis doesn't fit all. I believe I have BPD tendencies at times, but I also tend to fall under Avoidant Personality. Also, if you look at the DSM for MDD, a lot of the traits are confusingly similar to BPD. So how do they know I'm not just extremely depressed? There's no way of really knowing unless they monitor me 24/7.
In my experience, when my T mentioned she had been concerned that I had BPD, but no longer felt that way, I fell apart. She had no idea it affected me this way and I didn't either until I was processing it in the days following that session. I got to the point where I became so suicidal because my research on BPD and trying to understand it, destroyed me. Everything online makes treatment seem extremely difficult and even impossible for BPD. I felt like it was a "behavioral death sentence".