Borderline vs. Bipolar Diagnosis

I am diagnosed Bipolar but reading more about Borderline it sounds like I could have it (or both). Reading this article made me think about it. They are often misdiagnosed as the other.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/st ... -disorders

Ive seen this a few time here too, there has been a few misdiagnosed BPD and was BD, and BD when they were actually BPD, many symptoms overlap yes but the only thing that you can do is see your GP/healthcare about this again.

A lot of the symptoms do overlap and you can have both.

I'm diagnosed with Bipoar, but a locum pdoc diagnosed BPD when he saw me during an episode. My usual pdoc said I do have BPD traits, but he hasn't put that on the official diagnosis, so I'm not sure how serious that is. I recognise them in myself anyway and they seem to become a problem during mixed episodes.

The best thing to do is to talk to a psychiatrist about this if you think the BPD symptoms are impacting your life. You might find that the psychiatrist disagrees and says that you don't have BPD or traits. A lot of it is based on opinion.

If it helps, I find that my bipolar moods last for months, depression lasts the longest.

I have comorbid OCD which means I get very anxious and sometimes just crash from the adrenaline overload when it's been especially bad, but at the same time I don't feel depressed - just exhausted and frustrated.

I don't generally find I'm great one minute and down the next, my emotional thermostat is set to anxious, but that could well be the BPD traits.

It's a bit confusing isn't it?

@Cloud
Im glad you replied here (i was hoping you would)

@Echinacea

Ha! I'm obsessed with this very subject right now. How could I not?

CloudShark wrote:@Echinacea

Ha! I'm obsessed with this very subject right now. How could I not?

Good point

Well, the disorders are almost identical in that they share a number of traits, but ofc there's the additional hallmark traits that one disorder may have while the other doesn't.

to me, bipolar is more on the psychosis side than BPD is, and BD involves manic episodes.

That said, you can definitely have both - symptoms may or may not overlap.

It's very easy to make a diagnostic error in psychiatric disorders, there's so many to exist and very little awareness. A lot of disorders remain unrecognized and a professional will not hesitate to stamp you with an overused label. Generic judgement, but you'll find many beneficial and skilled psychiatric workers out there that are absolutely willing to take your matters seriously.

Support of the psychiatric domain is very deficient, there's definitely room for amelioration.

I've said this before, but it's a 'take it or leave it' concept. From personal experience, the support has been so mediocre and dilatory that I've believed it wouldn't make a difference to drop out.

It's indolent and I know many people are failed by these services. Misdiagnosis can be dangerous.

Rather sad that they don't want to see patients better through natural antidote, it's all about the medication - but it's common knowledge that medication can enhance the exhaustion.

The 4-5 years I've spent trying to get help has been nothing but constant quandary.

I think BPD only gets misdiagnosed as Bipolar when professionals are lazy and careless.

The big determining factor is that in Bipolar, the mood swings come out of nowhere, but can be spurred on by things like lack of sleep, although even that is a chicken/egg thing half the time.

With BPD, external factors are always the catalysts.

So when you have someone with BPD, who knows what they were responding to when they freaked out (in one way or another), but the professional doesn't care to hear it and analyze it, then the professional will conclude that it came "from nowhere" and thus must be Bipolar Disorder.