Bipolar and borderline...

I am not trying to diagnose myself but I was wondering how common these are together. I was recently diagnosed by a psychyitrist as bioolar. I have long depression spells and then crazy hypo/manic spells for weeks maybe longer, I am not really sure. My recolection of these episodes are not real clear but I get into all kinds of trouble and make bad/ risky decision. My friend told me to look up borderline personality disorder and I have many of these traits if not most.


Could I be borderline and misdiagnosed? Or could I be both?

I am going to talk to my psychiatrist Monday. I just wondered if this is a possibility and how common it is. This is all an area new to me and I am just seeking answers.

Thank you for any help,


Earle

The two are really very similiar. I've read an essay that stated that BPD and bipolar were so similiar that they shouldn't exist as seperate diagnoses. (Of course that's controversial.)

The asnwer is either/or, or both. (I don't feel like this helps...)

I agree there are a lot of similarities between them from what I can see. I am sure there are differences too but there does seem to be a lot of cross over. It does seem that a lot of ppl seem to have dual diagnoses of both and I am not sure whether this is because they have both or ppl are looking at two sides of the same illness.

Anyhow jsut my thoughts

Hugs

Cracked

Thank you for your replies.

I hope everyone has a good day.


Earle

I'm in a similar boat. I've been diagnosed with both borderline and bipolar 2. I find them very difficult to tease apart since both are very much mood altering disorders. It almost seems pointless to try to work out which is which when both affect my life at the end of the day. I have always had a mood disorder since I was very young, combined with not very normal/healthy attachment/relationship behaviour. My mood is nearly always dysphoric or depressive at its worst, with bouts of random hypomania. Both bpd and bp got worse in my early twenties. You are not alone.

I too have been diagnosed as Bipolar and borderline. My bipolar mood swings are much different than my borderline mood swings. My borderline mood swings are quick, maybe a few hours long and are usually triggered by something. My bipolar mood swings last much longer and usually don't have a definable trigger.

These two diagnoses are probably one of the most commonly misdiagnosed. The thing to remember is that Bipolar disorder is an Axis I diagnosis and borderline is an Axis II diagnosis. Therefore it is possible to have both. If you weren't diagnosed as bipolar it would probably be something like

Axis I: Major depression
Axis II: Borderline personality disorder

There always has to be an axis I. You can't just be diagnosed with an axis II. Typically insurance won't accept axis II diagnoses on their own.

Hope that makes sense

Cheze2 wrote:I too have been diagnosed as Bipolar and borderline. My bipolar mood swings are much different than my borderline mood swings. My borderline mood swings are quick, maybe a few hours long and are usually triggered by something. My bipolar mood swings last much longer and usually don't have a definable trigger.

My swings are just the same, Cheze.

And to add,

There are mood swings that come with a trigger that later on I can look back and understand where I need to be more cautious of some sort of situation or talk to my partner or whom ever saying something like, "Ok, when I freaked out there I think it stemmed from this or that and maybe we can not use words like this or understand my issues here or there" and there is actually some progress that can be made, little by little.

But then there are these days to weeks long periods where it has nothing to do with anything. It's just the nasty chemical imbalance taking control and I doubt there is much that can be done outside of medication.

I think of it this way,

If you were on decent meds for your bi-polar and you still had symptoms that were more emotional and able to be traced back to a origin, that's the borderline. One is chemical. One is learned behavior because of who you are, where you're from, how you've learned to cope and your abilities and inabilities to make sense out of your world. I know borderline isn't that simple and that it does have some links to our genetics, but I think more times than not, it becomes what it is for us because of our experiences, our personalities, our support systems growing up and our sense of self.

I could be so wrong. But that right there is what keeps me going. lol

Sounds like you've got great insight into yourself and your mental illness. That's the first step to recovery! Keep up with it.

Cheze2 wrote:Sounds like you've got great insight into yourself and your mental illness. That's the first step to recovery! Keep up with it.

If you're talking to me there, Cheze...WOO HOO. Thanks!!

If not, pretend I didn't post this.

If you're talking to me there, Cheze...WOO HOO. Thanks!!

I am talking to you! Bathe yourself in the compliments cause I meant it!