It's rare for borderline personality disorder (BPD) and schizophrenia to occur together, but it is possible. Mental health conditions aren't usually cut-and-dry conditions.
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is one of the most frequently used clinical diagnoses in both US and Europe. According to DSM-5 [1], the prevalence of BPD among inpatients is 20% and thus approaching the level of schizophrenia [2].
Of patients with BPD about 20–50% report psychotic symptoms. Hallucinations can be similar to those in patients with psychotic disorders in terms of phenomenology, emotional impact, and their persistence over time.
Cluster A and avoidant personality disorders are regarded as risk factors or antecedents for the development of schizophrenia.
When stressed, people with borderline personality disorder may develop psychotic-like symptoms. They experience a distortion of their perceptions or beliefs rather than a distinct break with reality. Especially in close relationships, they tend to misinterpret or amplify what other people feel about them.
Schizotypal personality disorder can easily be confused with schizophrenia, a severe mental illness in which people lose contact with reality (psychosis).
Borderline personality disorder usually begins by early adulthood. The condition seems to be worse in young adulthood and may gradually get better with age. If you have borderline personality disorder, don't get discouraged.
BPD patients can experience hallucinations or even delusions similar to schizophrenia.
Between 50% and 90% of patients with BPD report hearing voices that other people do not hear (Yee et al., 2005; Kingdon et al., 2010). Importantly, such auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) are a risk factor for suicide plans, attempts, and hospitalization (Miller et al., 1993; Zonnenberg et al., 2016).
Nonetheless, the borderline diagnosis is nosologically unclear, especially with respect to its differentiation from the schizophrenia spectrum disorders. When entering the DSM‐III, BPD was separated from schizotypal personality disorder (SPD), formerly often denoted as borderline schizophrenia.
You could have: Hallucinations: Seeing or hearing things that aren't there. Delusions: Mistaken but firmly held beliefs that are easy to prove wrong, like thinking you have superpowers, are a famous person, or people are out to get you. Disorganized speech: Using words and sentences that don't make sense to others.
People with BPD might find that they constantly change their mind about things, whether it's their feelings towards the people around them, or other areas of their life, such as their goals, ambitions or sexuality. Self-harm. In some cases, people with BPD self-harm.
Schizophrenia and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
One study found that both patients with schizophrenia and patients with BPD experience hearing voices. The difference between the two being that paranoid delusions occurred in less than one-third of patients with BPD, compared with two-thirds in schizophrenia.
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severe mental disorder affecting around 1% of the population. It is associated with significant psychiatric comorbidity,2 impairment in social function3 and a high rate of service utilisation. Personality disorder as a whole is associated with reduced life expectancy.
Many people who live with borderline personality disorder don't know they have it and may not realize there's a healthier way to behave and relate to others.
Distorted and unstable self-image or sense of self. Impulsive and often dangerous behaviors, such as spending sprees, unsafe sex, substance abuse, reckless driving and binge eating. Recurring suicidal behaviors or threats or self-harming behavior, such as cutting.
A person with BPD is highly sensitive to abandonment and being alone, which brings about intense feelings of anger, fear, suicidal thoughts and self-harm, and very impulsive decisions. When something happens in a relationship that makes them feel abandoned, criticized, or rejected, their symptoms are expressed.
People with Borderline Personality Disorder have a reduced life expectancy of some 20 years, attributable largely to physical health maladies, notably cardiovascular. Risk factors include obesity, sedentary lifestyle, poor diet and smoking.
The mean patient age was 27 years, and 77% were women. After 24 years, more patients with BPD died by suicide than patients with other PD (5.9% vs 1.4%). Similarly, rates of death from other causes were higher in patients with BPD (14.0%) compared with comparison patients (5.5%).
Many people with BPD feel emotions deeply and find working in a caring role fulfilling. If you are an empathetic person, consider jobs such as teaching, childcare, nursing and animal care.
Disorganized behavior can include odd behaviors like smiling or laughing for no apparent reason, or talking to yourself. It can also include movements that seem to happen for no reason, or even being stressed or annoyed without a clear cause. People with schizophrenia may have a childlike silliness about them.
Sometimes, people confuse dissociative identity disorder, formerly known as multiple personality disorder, and schizophrenia.
People who have psychotic episodes are often totally unaware their behaviour is in any way strange or that their delusions or hallucinations are not real. They may recognise delusional or bizarre behaviour in others, but lack the self-awareness to recognise it in themselves.
Chronic paranoid ideation, the long-standing and unchanging delusional beliefs that others plan to harm you, may indicate a psychotic disorder, such as schizophrenia. This can be a debilitating symptom, making the person with BPD feel constantly threatened, even by friends, coworkers, and family.