Curious

I am curious, if others are willing to share, but I was told by a very terrible pdoc that everyone who self harms has BPD. So I was curious, for those of you who self harm, what is your Dx?

I do not have BPD. I have PTSD, depression, and GAD.

I'm just curious if his claim was true.

Thanks,
Seesaw

I self harmed when I was on antidepressants....it took years to make the connection but the antidepressants would send me into a mixed state, I cut for release. I did have PTSD but no more just the BP now.

I believe mine was instigated by ADs too. I had never been diagnosed with BPD until this guy, and it was solely because I self harmed. None of the other criteria fit.

I met an A hole pdoc like that too, solely based on the cutting. A snap decision backed by zero facts and zero history. Back in the eighties when my life fell apart they actually did tons of testing to find diagnosises and ruled out all personality disorders....so I asked mr A hole if people suddenly developed personality disorders in their 40's? He sputtered and said they were wrong about my diagnosis and that I must have manipulated them into thinking I didn't have a personality disorder! What an A hole.

Right and I should mention that my self harm began when I was 34 and ended when I was 35.

ALL of my dx?

Age 25:
Social phobia, agoraphobia, GAD.

Age 37:
BPD/ASPD.

BPD.

HPD.

BPD, C-PTSD.

Last therapist:
AvPD, GAD and possibly BPD/HPD.

In that order.

I self-harm on occasion.

GAD and social anxiety disorder. I started self harming via cutting in my mid 20s about 4 years ago, but have self harmed since I was a child.

I'm 38, have severe depression with GAD and started cutting myself earlier this year.
I started when I was having CBT, I think because it made me think about, and put into words, the negative beliefs I have about myself but was totally ineffective at persuading me that these beliefs were untrue and so just made my depression and self-loathing worse...

In the 80's early 90's it was standard to label anyone who self-injured with BPD because it was the only Dx in the DSM that referred to self-injury. There's been a lot more education since then, but some old school pdoc's hear self-injury and automatically go BPD.

I self-injured since I was 10, and when started seeing a pdoc, I met most of the criteria for BPD but she hated the Dx, and said there was too much overlap with C-PTSD, so she Dx'd me with that instead, which saved me a lot of hassles.

I know there was a push on, when they last revised the DSM to include, Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI) as a Dx in its own right, but I don't know if it made it in or not. I'd be interested if anyone knows.

splitimage

Wow, thank you all for the responses. I see I'm not alone in having started self harm as an adult and not meeting the criteria for BPD.

My first diagnosises was MDD but it did quite fit everything in the box. They added PTSD but still ....so they changed the MDD to BP, but continued to prescribe antidepressants, my first SH didn't start till I was 29 or 30. Then when I would quit the drugs the SH stopped. Amazing how long it took to catch on to the connection between SH and the drugs. I do wonder if DBT would have helped the awareness sooner? I was never considered a canadate for DBT but what I've read about it makes me wonder if it would have helped?

SAME HERE! One doctor finally made the connection and kept me hospitalized until a full med change occurred. I still ended up self harming as a compulsion for awhile, but eventually after finding the right meds the urges completely stopped. I can barely even relate to the urge now. I think it's really dangerous to diagnose someone in one hour (or much less in my case).

I do too, think it's very dangerous, especially if they diagnosis before getting a full history.

I forgot about MDD. And now that I think about it, I think depressed persons can self-harm too without suicidal intent.

I have anxiety and MDD. My pdoc says I have traits of BPD but not full blown BPD.

I was told that too

and I don't have it, so..

I can tell them where to go lol

Originally, I was diagnosed with just social anxiety disorder, then GAD was added, then possibly OCD was added. Then a few years later, ASD and LD were added after a psychoeducational assessment. Then this year, my pdoc diagnosed me with MDD and GAD, and says I don’t have social anxiety disorder, since social anxiety is found in autism and she doesn’t want to over-diagnose. I still get panic attacks while doing presentations but...
I just started SH a few days ago. It could be because I’m decreasing the current AD I’m on, but I was still on it and it was causing some health issues so I’m decreasing it now. But now I’ve been thinking about both so...

Thank you everyone for sharing your stories!

My chart reads: Major depression (with suicidal and psychotic fearures), PTSD, conversion disorder, ASD.
Suicidal (is on another axis than the Depression, so also on another line) and disharmonic IQ profile.

May have something else also - another diagnosis was suggested Thu/Fri but I'm not ready to share that one yet, and besides, I might not have it at all.

By the way it's technically complex trauma, but they don't put that on an axis because it's not in the DSM.

I was diagnosed with BPD simply because I had self harm only later on tell pdoc's that when I was cutting I was doing it to calm down the voices. I believe my current diagnosis is schizophrenia and PTSD.

I fit some of the criteria, but I think that shrink mainly diagnosed due to self harm.

I was first diagnosed with bipolar and ODD, which was later changed to PTSD, anxiety, depression, EDNOS and BPD.

Although my new counselor is still working with me to see if the BPD diagnosis even fits since it was given to me by a psych ward doctor who barely talked to me at all and ignored many of the symptoms I told her about.

I once had a gynecologist tell me that I must have OCD because of my self harm. I told him that my brain wasn't his specialty, but later I did find out that there's a type of OCD called harm OCD which could potentially explain a lot of my intrusive thoughts.

I was diagnosed bipolar at 12 but hurt myself at the age of 10 already. Years of wrong medications made it worse.

I also have anxiety, but can't remember if I had it that young or not.