Borderline Personality Disorder

[JJ76]

Has anyone on the site been diagnosed with this (apart from the person who has already in boxed my).
I would like to hear from you via inbox if you prefer- I particularly want to know about how you received a formal diagnosis Was it a hard slog? Were you treated for other things prior- has it really changed your GPs or Mental health teams management of your case.
At the end of this post I will post a link which gives more details on what BPD is. However in short Anxiety is one of the symptoms (hence me posting in here having consulted admin) as well as frequent mood swings - similar to Bi-polar but in the sense you can be happy ecstatic one hour but suicidal the next. Not a lot of information is really out there about diagnosis- I have my suspicions about myself as many test and other factors that generally feature for a diagnosis are part of my history.
Please note that this site is from MIND a mental health website and does discuss some unpleasant situations which I know that some may be uncomfortable reading about.
http://www.mind.org.uk/help/diagnoses_and_conditions/borderline_personality_disorder

[ems43]

I have never been diagnosed with it, but have worked with a number of people who suffer from it. There are often personality disorder networks in most countys now that offer specialist help to clients who suffer with this x However, in my experience people who suffer with borderline personality disorder generally lack insight into having it. It could be that you suffer with borderline traits? We all have traits of certain personality disorders, its on a continium, with personality disorder being the extreme end of the spectrum. Most people i have worked with who suffer BPD have a long and extensive history of severe self harm, emotional instability, difficulty in forming or keepign relationships, shifting from idealising people to hating them very quickly and impulsive behaviour. Many people have suffered emotional and or physical abuse or neglect x

[harasgenster]

Hi
I don't have this but have known several people who have. I agree with ems43, the people I knew were very volatile and seemed quite delusional. I don't know about the histories of the people I knew but I always had a feeling something quite terrible must have happened to them.

I'm sure there are many different severities of the illness and, as ems43 says, is it a spectrum and you are bound to have some of the symptoms on there. I recognised a few of them myself, particularly the swinging moods from ecstatic to deeply depressed from one day to the next, but I have been diagnosed with a mild form of bipolar disorder.

If you feel that you match all of the symptoms in there, I think you should explain this to your doctor. You might not want to start with I found information on BPD and...they may take you less seriously if they feel you are self-diagnosing, but just tell them honestly what all the symptoms are and how you feel.

Leave it to them to decide what disorder you have, if any, and they will be able to advise you. And no, I doubt you will be treated differently. Remember that docs expect to deal with mental health issues sometimes. Hallucinations/delusions/extreme emotions and volatile behaviour that is often seen in BPD are probably more,not less, likely to be taken seriously by medical professionals when compared with arguably milder conditions like anxiety and depression (though of course I am not saying one suffers more than the other, this is subjective).

Remember that the name of your illness is besides the point. I don't really agree with my diagnosis but the important thing is that, having gone temporarily a bit insane, I feel much more like myself again. This is because of the treatment I received. So long as you feel the treatment you get is helping, don't worry about the name they give you :)