having symptoms of disorders you don't have?

i sometimes find myself taking on symptoms of other disorders (most notably ADHD, bipolar, and schizophrenia) when I know for a fact I don't have them.

my psychotic symptoms aren't significant or severe enough to be a disorder in and of themselves. and neither are my other symptoms. my most notable ones logically add together to be BPD.

this sounds awful but i think i take them on purposely for attention. even though i had delusions before i even knew what having delusions was, same with disorganized thinking and speech, and problems with holding attention, and severe dissociative states. but sometimes when i read about other mental illnesses i find myself becoming them, and it's very strange and very scary. the other day i was browsing through some information on schizophrenia and i just lost control of myself, convinced myself i wasn't real, went into a catatonic state. and this happens VERY often to me. it's absolutely awful and i feel so so so guilty

i'm thinking that taking on symptoms of other disorders is a BPD thing in itself, accidentally or not? does anyone else with BPD experience this??

What you're describing sounds more like hypochondria than anything else. Lots of people have self-relating/symptomatic issues...I think they call it self-diagnosing...but I don't think its necessarily a borderline trait. You at least stated that you basically know you don't really have the symptoms manifesting themselves as real in your mind.

I personally think most people who take on symptoms they don't have are attention-whoring (and I know that term doesn't go over well around here) and just need acknowledging. I'm probably wrong. It happens a lot.

EDIT: I posted and realized that my eyes misread a hefty portion of the a OP. I can admit it.

I don't do it, but I've always thought since I was very young that other people didn't really exist unless I could visually see them or they're speaking to me (phone/text/messages). Like they're dead until they say something, I see them, or I read something they wrote.. and then once they're gone they're dead again.

Almost as if their existence is only here to benefit me. I often wonder if I'm in a coma and everything is just a figment of my imagination. It really messes with my head when I think about it too much.

(and I don't mean like missing them or anything. Just that they don't exist, like me thinking I don't exist. haha)

I believe I'm as healthy as a horse despite me being the loner who doesn't work and no one knows anything about him.
I just believe I am an MK Ultra patient is all, I'm not Schizophrenic, I'm Schizotypal, and maybe I am indeed wrong.
But I can't relate to most mental illnesses. (Or any for that matter.)
I honestly can't relate to any mental illnesses anymore.
I think other people do legit have it, but I don't, I just have a "Psychiatric Injury" is all, trauma.
And then there is the demons, and Illuminati mind control.
I don't hear voices and I don't have delusions, I could be wrong, maybe it is the bad experiences with doctors or maybe I'm just too blind to see.
What is real?
What is the truth?

-- Mon Jan 30, 2017 7:00 pm --

Breytt wrote:I don't do it, but I've always thought since I was very young that other people didn't really exist unless I could visually see them or they're speaking to me (phone/text/messages). Like they're dead until they say something, I see them, or I read something they wrote.. and then once they're gone they're dead again.

Almost as if their existence is only here to benefit me. I often wonder if I'm in a coma and everything is just a figment of my imagination. It really messes with my head when I think about it too much.

(and I don't mean like missing them or anything. Just that they don't exist, like me thinking I don't exist. haha)

I'm somewhat of a literal nihilist, what is real?
I'm agnostic to this material physical world and I embrace the spiritual, I think that's called "Gnosticism."
Although that was a Christian movement and I am not Christian, I have no spiritual label.
Only pain and pleasure are for sure to exist, and the spiritual.

I have antisocial and borderline traits. This is common with Cluster B PDs, and NPD has one of the highest comorbidity rates of the PDs so it's not really surprising or unusual.

Breytt wrote:I don't do it, but I've always thought since I was very young that other people didn't really exist unless I could visually see them or they're speaking to me (phone/text/messages). Like they're dead until they say something, I see them, or I read something they wrote.. and then once they're gone they're dead again.

Almost as if their existence is only here to benefit me. I often wonder if I'm in a coma and everything is just a figment of my imagination. It really messes with my head when I think about it too much.

(and I don't mean like missing them or anything. Just that they don't exist, like me thinking I don't exist. haha)

This sounds like a poor sense of object constancy, which is a very classic BPD trait.

vortexvoid wrote:This sounds like a poor sense of object constancy, which is a very classic BPD trait.

I think it's a common Cluster B trait in general. I once told a psychologist other people were like mindless golems just going through the motions, reacting to environmental stimuli by instinct and reflex and that they may as well cease to exist outside of my immediate presence.

I once read that issues with object constancy are typical in NPD, but the general lack of consideration that underscores Cluster B in general makes me think it's probably common for ASPD, BPD, and HPD as well.

Jasmer wrote:I once read that issues with object constancy are typical in NPD, but the general lack of consideration that underscores Cluster B in general makes me think it's probably common for ASPD, BPD, and HPD as well.

Agreed. I am more aware of its role in BPD because that's my longest-standing diagnosis, but yes, it seems to be involved in several of the disorders. I imagine it also occurs in people without PDs but maybe to a lesser degree or in a different form? I don't know all that much about it beyond my own experience and research stemming from those experiences.

vortexvoid wrote:

Breytt wrote:

This sounds like a poor sense of object constancy, which is a very classic BPD trait.

Learn something new every day. I've not once seen it brought up in this forum, so I didn't realize it was related. Not to mention it's been going on longer than my bpd. idk. Like in my head I just can't grasp how other people can actually be alive and doing things without me being there and seeing it. Like how can they even be alive if I can't see them? Like I said, it really messes with my head.

It doesn't upset me any (or give me any sort of anxiety), but I just find it strange how people can live their own lives without me seeing it.

In my case, I guess due to the factor that I change moods and the image of myself frequently, I have some of the symptoms of another conditions. So when I'm feeling good I may be quite narcisstic, histrionic, psychopathic and maniac.
Yet, when I'm not feeling ok, then I'm always pretty convinced that I'm depressed. I even show some symptoms of avoidant personality.
When too deep in a toxic relationship I behave like dependent disorder personality suffering person (and I have that one way too much).

At some point in my life I thought that I might have had some problems with schizophrenia.