BPD So I was just recently diagnosed with BPD by a psychiatrist:

[Luna_Moth]

I can’t say that I’m surprised, but that doesn’t make it any less upsetting. Personality disordered traits tend to run on my mother’s side of the family. I was raised by two narcissists. My mother has traits of NPD, but unsurprisingly would not get treatment.

I am currently medicated for anxiety, depression, and PTSD (Complex-PTSD but it isn’t recognized in my country so I was diagnosed with regular PTSD) as well. My treatment involves DBT therapy, which has been working out very well for me. I’ve only been taking it for two months so far and have already seen dramatic improvements. It’s to prepare me better for EMDR, which I’ve read has a tendency to be very destabilizing.

If I had to describe my symptoms, I fit more into the “quiet” type.

I just want to know if anyone’s symptoms have lessened over the years with therapy. I know it’s unrealistic to want to get rid of this, but I really do not want to have the rest of my life dictated by a personality disorder. Personally I find this diagnosis to be way more upsetting than my PTSD one and I’ve only been diagnosed with PTSD last year. I’ve had developmental trauma since I was 4 or 5, maybe even younger than that. I was too young to have memories or maybe they’re just repressed. Having a personality disorder honestly feels more permanent because it is. I’m not upset because of the stigma, I’m upset that my entire development has been f*cked in the ass.

 

[Freemartin]

Personally, I’m not a fan of personality disorder diagnoses. I’m more inclined to think along the lines of trauma theory and, especially, the Internal family systems model. In which the whole biomedical model of diagnostics is kinda ditched.

So, I see personality disorders as a label which the medical community has given to a certain cluster of symptoms that often go together. And those thing we call symptoms are basically attempts to survive different aspects of traumatic shit we’ve endured.

Plus, it’s well worth noting that there’s very significant overlap between BPD and the so-called CPTSD or developmental trauma. And with BPD we know it is practically always tied to traumatic childhood. So, my opinion: there’s absolutely no sense in setting a diagnosis of personality disorder on someone with developmental trauma.

In this discourse the questions of cure, recovery, remission etc. get somewhat inflated. If your trauma shit gets treated and your life gets easier? What sense does it make to say that this condition is life-long?

My two cents: try to resist the idea that it’s somehow now come to the world’s knowledge that you, in addition to your previous conditions, now have yet another one with a poor prognosis.

Also, it’s a common misunderstanding that personality disorders are necessarily life-long. The meand remission rate in this sound meta-analysis was around 60%.

Personality Disorder - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf

Anyways, them’s my 2 cents

 

[Calmdown]

I don't know enough about your situation but in my experience it is worth it to test for ADHD. ADHD with trauma can very much look like BPD. Even ADHD without trauma can look like BPD to some psychiatrists. I would not rule out BPD but it is important to get the right treatment.
To your question: Therapy helps if you find a fitting therapist. Even without therapy things can get better but it takes time. BPD symptoms lessen with age too.

 

[Dark.Green.Feathers]

I have a close friend with a BPD diagnosis, I’m of the belief that personality disorders are traumagenic too. She was emotionally neglected at home due to complex family circumstances and loads of trauma at school from a young age. Also autistic.

She’s been doing DBT and other things for a while now and even though her symptoms have never directly affected me I can tell a huge difference in her wellbeing and ability to cope with it. It’s still part of her life but she has such a noticeable handle on and understanding of how she is and how to deal with things and ride it out when things get hard.

I know her as a caring, empathetic and creative person and we’ve been friends for life. She still has to deal with it and sometimes it’s a lot and she has poorly phases but she also has a life beyond it too that she’s built the past few years since figuring out what was wrong and starting management/therapy/et al. I don’t think these diagnoses are doom sentences, and my friend has come out of some pretty doom seeming circumstances. She also doesn’t have an A* therapy situation either.


I know this isn’t personal experience but I want to kind of echo what Freemartin is saying. This is another aspect of trauma, you don’t have to look at it like another seperate disease to put on the list. It’s another type manifestation of trauma. There is a lot of grief in having developmental scars but it doesn’t have to be the end all of life even though it sticks around.

 

[arfie]

I just want to know if anyone’s symptoms have lessened over the years with therapy. I know it’s unrealistic to want to get rid of this, but I really do not want to have the rest of my life dictated by a personality disorder.

i don't know that my symptoms have lessened any, but my skill in managing those symptoms has increased mightily. shifting the focus to symptom management has removed the surprise/shame factor, saving me tons of time/energy on the agony drama. ho hum. . . there i go again. . . ply therapy tools here. the sooner begun, the sooner done.

steadying support while you find what works for you. luna. yes, it's unrealistic to expect ^it^ to go away just because i don't like it, but my mental illness is a condition i suffer. it is not who or what i am.

 

[Sideways]

BPD, just like your other diagnoses, is your psychiatrist’s best attempt at explaining what’s going on for you. Diagnoses can be helpful for understanding ourselves, and selecting the right treatment.

BPD, like certain dissociative disorders, does seem to have a strong relationship to childhood trauma. Makes sense that you feel angry about that. Because yeah, it probably is a consequence of what you survived as a kid.

Here’s the good news - just like you’re already experiencing, DBT is an evidence-based treatment for BPD. And for all that folks will tell you personality disorders are ‘untreatable’, you have good reason to be optimistic that it will improve with treatment and that your symptoms will naturally wane in strength over the the course of your life.

DBT is most often delivered via fixed-course length, but if you’re finding it helpful, you can get a T who is DBT trained to help continue your progress after the completion of the course (or plain old do the course again at intervals - I’ve repeated courses in CBT, DBT and ACT).

There’s a lot of stigma about BPD (which you’re already seeing!!). But just like your other diagnoses, nothing has actually changed about you, or your lived experience. Your T has simply given you a bit more insight into exactly how they are defining your experience, so that treatment can be as targeted to your situation as possible.

 

[Luna_Moth]

BPD, like certain dissociative disorders, does seem to have a strong relationship to childhood trauma. Makes sense that you feel angry about that. Because yeah, it probably is a consequence of what you survived as a kid.

Oh I’m already noticing myself getting increasingly enraged at the thought, but thank you for your input. I feel like you always have a way with words that always manages to make me feel better. So thank you for that.

 

[Luna_Moth]

I don't know enough about your situation but in my experience it is worth it to test for ADHD. ADHD with trauma can very much look like BPD. Even ADHD without trauma can look like BPD to some psychiatrists. I would not rule out BPD but it is important to get the right treatment.
To your question: Therapy helps if you find a fitting therapist. Even without therapy things can get better but it takes time. BPD symptoms lessen with age too.

BPD, trauma, and dissociative symptoms can mimic ADHD as well. Especially when you’re a young child.

I was diagnosed with ADHD at 8 and then again at 13. I was medicated and treated for it and I am not going through that again. It made everything 10 times worse. It forced me to concentrate but, in the end, all that caught up to me. I’d rather not be able to concentrate due to my other issues than f*ck myself up even more.

DBT therapy and the medication I’m taking is really helping with concentration and my ability to function. So I’d rather go with BPD, depression, and PTSD as probable diagnoses than simply ADHD. That was what pediatricians thought I had.

 

[Calmdown]

Sorry I didn't mean to bring up a difficult topic. What I wanted to say is that it can be both, PTSD and ADHD, not solely ADHD. This is what makes it difficult for doctors who rarely have any clue about trauma or ADHD anyways. But with that bad experience I understand your reaction.

 

[Luna_Moth]

Sorry I didn't mean to bring up a difficult topic. What I wanted to say is that it can be both, PTSD and ADHD, not solely ADHD. This is what makes it difficult for doctors who rarely have any clue about trauma or ADHD anyways. But with that bad experience I understand your reaction.

I doubt I have it. I’m not getting distracted anymore now that I have the right help.