Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a common condition that is characterized by a host of different challenges and symptoms. One experience that's frequently associated with borderline personality disorder is anxiety; and often people with BPD are also diagnosed with an anxiety disorder as well.
Because young people with BPD may project symptoms that seem similar to other personality disorders, it is often confused with bipolar, depression, or anxiety disorders.
The Symptoms and Causes, and How to Get Treatment. The difference between BPD and anxiety or panic disorders is the latter cause symptoms more frequently and for a greater period of time, for at least six months. “Their anxiety is more pervasive and chronic than the anxiety that is related to BPD,” Cullen says.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) consists of an over-reactive and/or unstable mood that could be mistaken with mood swings and affective instability of bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder.
One study cited that almost 40% of people who were diagnosed with BPD were provided with a misdiagnosis of BD at some point in their lifetime in comparison to only 10% of people in the general population receiving a misdiagnosis of BD. The exact reasoning for this high rate of misdiagnosis is debated among researchers.
Many mental health professionals do not have a lot exposure or education on BPD, so it's easy for BPD to be misdiagnosed as something else such as bipolar disorder since both disorders involve shifting moods and periods of depression.
If left untreated, the person suffering from BPD may find themselves involved with extravagant spending, substance abuse, binge eating, reckless driving, and indiscriminate sex, Hooper says. The reckless behavior is usually linked to the poor self-image many BPD patients struggle with.
Some of the most common effects of untreated BPD can include the following: Dysfunctional social relationships. Repeated job losses. Broken marriages.
Quiet borderline personality disorder, or quiet BPD, is a classification some psychologists use to describe a subtype of borderline personality disorder (BPD). While many symptoms of BPD can manifest outward (such as aggression toward others), individuals with quiet BPD may direct symptoms like aggression inward.
This subtype is often hard to spot. If you have quiet BPD, you direct moods and behaviors inward, so other people don't see. Your emotions and behaviors may feel like a roller coaster with many ups and downs. You may have difficulty in your relationships due to fear of abandonment.
Wide mood swings lasting from a few hours to a few days, which can include intense happiness, irritability, shame or anxiety. Ongoing feelings of emptiness. Inappropriate, intense anger, such as frequently losing your temper, being sarcastic or bitter, or having physical fights.
One experience that's frequently associated with borderline personality disorder is anxiety; and often people with BPD are also diagnosed with an anxiety disorder as well. Anxiety can control a person's life whilst also being the result of the way that one sees themself.
Most personality disorders begin in the teen years when your personality further develops and matures. As a result, almost all people diagnosed with borderline personality disorder are above the age of 18. Although anyone can develop BPD, it's more common if you have a family history of BPD.
Identifying Episodes
Intense angry outbursts. Suicidal thoughts and self-harm behavior. Going to great lengths to feel something, then becoming increasingly avoidant and withdrawn. Paranoia, feeling as if there is someone out to get you.
Many people still believe that those living with it can be manipulative or dangerous due to their symptoms. While this can be the case in a very small minority of people, most people with BPD are just struggling with their sense of self and their relationships. It's important to note that we're not dangerous people.
It's used to describe people who meet the criteria for BPD but whose symptoms don't manifest in the typical, overt way associated with BPD. While people with BPD tend to "act out"—such as having angry outbursts—people with quiet BPD "act in," directing their symptoms and emotions at themselves.
It is now clear that DSM-IV-defined BPD is a heterogeneous construct that includes patients on the mood disorder spectrum and the impulsivity spectrum (Siever and Davis, 1991), in contrast to the original speculation that these patients might be near neighbors of patients with schizophrenia or other psychoses.
Borderline personality disorder often occurs with other mental illnesses, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These co-occurring disorders can make it harder to diagnose and treat borderline personality disorder, especially if symptoms of other illnesses overlap with symptoms of the disorder.
Borderline personality disorder can be a difficult diagnosis because of similarities to other conditions, particularly mood disorders.
BPD can be difficult to diagnose because the symptoms are similar to other mental illnesses, such as depression, psychosis and bipolar disorder. Depending on your situation, one session may not be long enough to decide which diagnosis best fits your symptoms. You may be also be offered different treatments.
People with BPD score low on cognitive empathy but high on emotional empathy. This suggests that they do not easily understand other peoples' perspectives, but their own emotions are very sensitive. This is important because it could align BPD with other neurodiverse conditions.