I am often asked why Borderline Personality Disorder is not as recognized and as accepted as bipolar disorder . I think there are four main reasons:
No celebrity has come out and announced that they have the disorder. While several celebrities have said they have bipolar disorder (just search on the Internet and you’ll see), no celebrity has announced they have BPD. Why? Probably because of the stigma (see below). There are certainly candidates for the disorder, but no poster child yet.
Many people believe that BPD is just a case of the person behaving badly. Non-BPs are definitely guilty of this in spades. The behaviors associated with the disorder – including drug abuse, lying and manipulation – lead many people, including family members and therapists, to believe that the disorder begins and ends with behavior. While behavioral therapies seem to be the most effective in treating the disorder, emotional dysregulation and cognitive disortions play a big role and shouldn’t be ignored. A person with BPD is not just someone behaving badly. They are trying to adapt to the large amount of emotional pain that they feel. Sometimes these adpatations will take the form of dangerous and distructive behavior, but that behavior is not about anyone other than themselves – in other words the behavior is not about you (the Non-BP).
When Hope is Not Enough
Get the Non-BPD book
that has helped hundreds!
If you have the disorder, give it to you loved ones! It will help.
Bipolar is an Axis I disorder and BPD is an Axis II disorder. This really must change. Historically, BPD has been considered a “personality” disorder. People see it as a character flaw (even some of the sufferers). It is not a character flaw – it is a serious emotional and mental illness that should be treated as such. There are biological components to BPD just as there are biological components to bipolar disorder. It’s time to get rid of the Axis II classification of BPD and treat it like bipolar disorder.
There is a huge stigma surrounding BPD. If you do a search on the Internet and read Non-BP stories, most are in the vein of “I’m glad I got rid of my borderline wife.” There are several Non-BP books that are also in this vein. There is little worse in the mind of the public than someone having BPD. It’s time to remove the stigma. I hope that deeming May as BPD awareness month will help to increase awareness and remove the stigma.
Related posts:
- People with Borderline Personality Disorder over diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder
- Does Britney Spears have Borderline Personality Disorder?
- A New Name for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)?
- Update on Britney Spears and Borderline Personality Disorder
- Angelina Jolie and Borderline Personality Disorder (again)
- NIHM Director Thomas Insel considers the name of “Borderline Personality Disorder”
- Experts Argue that BPD should be an Axis I disorder
- Why I posted on DID on a site dedicated to Borderline Personalty Disorder
- Kurt Cobain and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
- Biology of Borderline Personality Disorder
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Loading ...
Blog Hub
Maxlinks
This may be bad to say, but I was really hoping Britney Spears was borderline instead of bipolar. She sounds so much like borderline. I hoped she’d have it so we’d finally have a celebrity “face” for the disorder. I thought it would bring attention to the disorder and raise awareness.
Well, I suspect Britney IS borderline (although I’m not supposed to diagnose her according to the press lately). You may notice that the press says she has A form of bipolar disease which it can be argued could be either biploar II or borderline, since both are rapid cycling “mood” (emotional) disorders. I saw in a sidebar in People (at my daughter’s therapist of all places) that suggested BPD for Britney. Even if she does have it I suspect unless the K-Fed thing turns uglier, her people will try andprotect her from the diagnosis and the stigma. Sad really…
Thanks so much for this post! In honor of BPD Awareness Month, I just wrote:
Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness Month: Discussing, Understanding & Publicizing an Under-Recognized Epidemic
In it, I talk about this very thing – how BPD is often misdiagnosed as Bipolar. I think one more reason is that the insurance companies are more willing to pay for Bipolar so some are purposely diagnosed as that for financial reasons.
I really hope this month will be used to help raise awareness and put BPD on the table as a well known and understood condition. Thanks!
I do not think that lying and manipulation are part of this diagnosis. If they seem to be present, look either to another PD or to shame and anxiety as the cause, along with a long history of learning to never overtly state what you needed to be okay, or to express how rotten you felt, as the consequences always seemed to be much worse…
Sometimes it seems as if people hate those that are dx BPD precisely because they haven’t quite gone off the deep end for good. It’s bewildering how many professionals seem to resent them for this too.
They may curl up in a fetal position for hours, but then they will struggle out of bed and go on. They smile at us, while their inner world self-destructs. They might seem as alive as anyone, but -in the best of times- they feel dead inside; and as intelligent and gifted as many of them are, they never realize their full potential. But they would rather die than admit this to the outside world.
Who would today be dx’d BPD? Vincent Van Gogh, Kafka, Proust, Nathanial West, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison…
It’s ironic that they are so often seen as “emotional” when what they lack is a full nuanced range of emotions. Inner tension keeps anxiety coiled, emotionally stressful situations release it, and before they have a chance to think through what they feel, they are overwhelmed by fear and anger and despair. They get mired in their negativity. Studies have shown that those with BPD do not get angry more often than anyone else, but they have trouble leaving it behind when they do. And afterwards they drown in remorse, because these reactions are NOT felt to be syntonic. No one seems to pay much attention to this, but all other “personality disorders” are understood to be PD’s because they are syntonic with the personality. This is radically different in BPD.
That right there should raise lots of doubts about what this dx is. Is it part of the affective disorder spectrum? Is a akin to partial seizures in frontal lobe epilepsy? Is it a developmental disorder akin to autism? This is all possible, and perhaps BPD is a dx given to many different people who do not share underlying causes. This should at least stop us from quickly claiming that they CHOSE to feel the way they do. As if they were hell bent on living in hell…
When they do awkwardly, fearfully, try to communicate this pain, when they do reach out for help, they generally do so when their psyche is at it’s most shattered. They will quickly learn that their behavior is not acceptable to anyone. So they’ll go through DBT or through some other behavioral therapy, and sink into so much shame and guilt that lo and behold they will no longer qualify on the DSM for BPD; they will have learned to suffer in silence and to isolate (if they haven’t before – many of those with BPD will never consult a therapist in their lifetime and go through life pretty much invisible), learned to not bother anyone, but the dysthymia, the insomnia, and the dysphoria will still be there, eroding their lives, their aliveness. And as hard as they try, fear will still strike them out of the blue when they least expect it. As hard as they try, they will still plummet down into misery with the least negative emotion. Skinless creatures, they can not tune out human suffering, they can do nothing about the heightened sensitivity that they were born with. Only now no one will know. And so hopefully, thankfully, no one will ever call them “Borderline” again.
Zephyr,
Thanks for the comment. Yes, I don’t think lying or manipulation are part of the diagnosis either. In my book, I report shame as the main cause of lying and manipulation – however, I think that manipulation in itself is a pretty poor way to describe any behavior. All behaviors have a purpose and any could be seen as manipulation, depending on your viewpoint.
I believe that three main factors “cause” (or at least fuel) BPD: emotional dysregulation (which I think for the most part is biological, although the “triggers” may not be), impulsiveness (which could be considered biological as well) and shame (which is probably not biological, but a reaction to invalidation or a feeling of brokenness). I think that all the other symptoms arise from one or a combination of these three factors. Of course, that is only my personal opinion…
It is troubling that professional resent people with BPD. My wife fears “going off the deep end for good” to the point of refusing to get some of the help she needs.
I would agree that BPD, IMO, is part of the affective disorder spectrum, with impulse control issues added to the mix. It will be nice when they rename BPD to something else – and Emotional Regulation Disorder (ERD) is a pretty good choice IMO.
Bon
As someone who was diagnosed with Bipolar I/co-morbid Panic Disorder about five years ago and I find it TOTALLY offensive that Bon Dobbs has made the statement that Bipolar Disorder has been accepted. I can tell you that as someone who lives with it everyday that it is NOT accepted. That statement beyond insulting. Going to pharmacy and picking up different medications (e.g. Lithium) and the way you’re looked at by the pharmasist is even hurtful. The way people (even within your own family) treat you differently after you tell them is heartbreaking. People talk. They see you, and they look and react to you like you are completely different person then you were before. People STILL think you’re ‘crazy’.
This is not to say that I don’t have deep empathy for people who suffer from BPD. A close friend of mine has recently been diagnosed with BPD and her suffering is gut wrenching to see. She refuses to get real help. And the “help” that she has gotten, has been useless. I agree that the name of BPD should be changed. I also don’t think, along with many experts in the field, that “Bipolar” fits the disease.
I take serious issue that non-experts all over the internet and media in general, take celebrities and diagnose them. It’s just not right. Unless, you are that person’s Dr. and know their truths and symptoms, you have no right to pass judgement on anyone. I take serious issues with a couple of posts.
“Who would today be dx’d BPD? Vincent Van Gogh, Kafka, Proust, Nathanial West, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison…”. Umm…How do you know?? I’m sorry, but you don’t.
“This may be bad to say, but I was really hoping Britney Spears was borderline instead of bipolar.”. That’s not “bad” thing to say; it’s DISGUSTING.
I see one of the foremost Psychiatrists in NYC and he agrees. Unless that person is your patient, you can speculate all you want to, but until they’re sitting face to face with you, one cannot without a shadow of a doubt diagnose them. It’s wrong.
The fact is, people should be focusing their energy on removing the stigma of mental illness in different ways, instead of looking to celebrities to come save day. It wouldn’t even nessacarily be a good thing. Anyone who has a mental illness knows what a private decision it is to be able to be open about it.
I apologize to anyone who I’ve offended if what I’ve written seems harsh, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s truth.