I am in a clinic at the moment, and have many old self harm scars. A few of the nurses have treated me like absolute crap because they assume the scars are because I have borderline personality disorder. For starters it is terrible they treat patients with BPD worse than other patients but its even worse because I DO NOT HAVE BORDERLINE!!! Self harm does not instantly mean borderline. It is the only borderline "trait" I have and it can also be a trait of bipolar depression (which I do have).

How many other people have been treated badly because of scars? Has anyone else been wrongly accused of having borderline personality disorder just because you are or have been a self harmer in the past?

Luckily today my doctor wrote them a note informing them I do not fit the BPD criteria so I am hoping that the nurses who were assuming and accusing me will start to be a little nicer. I think it is just awful that they treat BPD as lower class patients and just assume everyone that self harms automatically has BPD.

[x_BabyG_x]

I agree, it's disgusting! I've heard this many times before it's sad really x

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I was diagnosed wrongly two years ago nearly with BPD. I assume mainly because of self harm and at the time one suicide attempt. I actually only recently got a second opinion and this pdoc said I don't fit the criteria and didn't get why I had been diagnosed in the first place!

[Erti]

I don't know if I was ever officially diagnosed but I think I was "diagnosed" mainly because I have self harmed. Looking up on it, I don't think I really fit the criteria for the disorder. I never asked the doctor why they think I have the disorder. Probably would of been a good idea.

[reesecups]

I've never been treated badly for it, but it was assumed I had BPD. Only about a month ago, did they diagnose me as Bipolar and I learned that SI was a possible symptom of that. I feel like screaming "Why didn't anyone tell me?"

[Mike_J]

I had a psychiatrist suggest DBT and tried to say I have BPD (nothing against DBT, it has helped some of my friends greatly)

My therapist told me "You do NOT have Borderline Personality Disorder"...

And my self injury was a HUGE part of the reason that she assumed I had BPD...

Well, they kicked me out of the mental hospital because my suicide attempts (which they count as a form of self harm) destabilized the other patients. Since my second suicide attempt at the clinic they've been treating me like a leper.
I still am at the clinic during daytime: from 8 to 5. I'm not allowed to sleep there anymore because the nurses don't want to deal with my nighttime suicide attempts, or find my body in the morning.

[WrongEverything]

Lol I love this. I cannot tell you how many shrink's offices i've walked into and one of the first things they say is "well you're definitely not borderline" and all i can do is giggle like yep!!

[krisakira]

I was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder at the hospital after i was inpatient the last time I went there and it just carried over as one of my main diagnoses where I go to therapy now. My T and I have since discussed it and found I only have 3 traits of it, and traits of other PDs so my dx is personality disorder trait specific (equivalent to NOS).