Why does BPD have more of a stigma than Bipolar?

I read that Bipolar is actually like a more extreme mood disorder than BPD. I don't know if that is true or not. But either way it just got me wondering why BPD seems to have this stigma to it but Bipolar doesn't so much. I mean I think every mental disorder has it's own stigma. But I think there is more of a stigma to BPD from what I've seen. Is it just because BPD is a personality disorder? Is it because of the differences between being in a relationship with someone with BPD vs. someone with Bipolar?

Just to be clear I don't think it's ever right to use someone's mental disorder against them or as a justification to place blame on someone. That is not mental disorders are. Everyone is different and deserving of respect, obviously! (and I'm sorry I need to even point that out). My question is just to gain more understanding of the differences in the disorders I guess plus how people view them.

There is a great book called loving someone with bpd and my husband is reading it sometimes we read it together and actually this is a topic covered in it. It says the stigma stems from professionals feeling there was no way to help people with bpd. This was in the early 1900s I think don't quote me on that. Professionals were warey of treating bpd traits with medicine because bpd people have tendency of abuse and self depressants tend to eccentuate feelings of emptiness. You can't exactly change how a bpd person thinks which is how professionals approached it in the begining. So there was a stigma that bpd people were way too hard to work with. At least that's what the author explained in the book. Professionals were looking for a "cure" I personally don't think there isn't an actual 'cure' per say.
It is my honest opinion that bipolar is easier to control. You sedate the Mania with lithium and medicate the depression with anti depressants. I have a natural aversion to such a thing it sounds awful to me personally I would not want to not feel alive or like a zombie. I think this would make me more destructive and intensity suicidal. I think that's why there is less of a stigma for them.
I think the stigma is getting better now that professionals are approaching it with DBT, teaching people how to see the situation clearly and then learning how to change the response from a destructive route.

I guess there are four reasons:
It being a personality disorder, there is no 'normal' phase whereas there can be a normal phase between depression and mania phases in bipolar disorder.
It is triggered by interpersonal relationships whereas bipolar trigger comes out of the blue.
Once the favourite person is devalued, all contact with him is cut forever. He is never accepted again.
The suicide rate is the highest among all mental disorders.

Another difference is that once diagnosed bi-polar can be effectively treated in most cases with medication. I have a good friend with bi-polar who is pretty well balanced and hasn't had an episode in ages since he got his meds sorted.

Unfortunately BPD seems to shift so medication isn't any where near as effective if at all.

I totally agree with the stigma differences. I've even heard that some psychiatrists tend to diagnose BP with somebody with BDP, just for the patient to avoid stigma ie. during therapy (as therapists "don't like" pwBPD). However, that's only what I've heard (or read, don't remember) and I don't know how much of truth it is. It might be a gossip as well.
Anyway, back to the reasons. I can think of some:

1) pwBPD are rather hard to cope with - at leat that's the stereotype - so the internet is full of nons' opinions about how horrible pwBPD are and that one should avoid them;
2) about the people online bashing pwBPD - half of the opinions sound like "my ex was diagnosed borderline" - so nobody knows if she really had BPD, however that's how her ex boyfriend says in the net - she was just difficult to deal with > she had to be borderline;
3) BP is an illness, BPD is a disorder (at least in my country); it might only be a difference in definition, but still - the same medication (meaning the anti-epilepsy mood stabilizers) would be refunded for pwBP and epileptics, however pwBPD would have to pay the full price - so I guess there's also a difference in people's minds - pwBP are ill, so they can't help that, pwBPD are just disordered, so if they wanted really hard, they would change; stupid as it is, but somehow that's how it works;
4) as helloagain has mentioned - pqBP have "normal" phases, pqBPD don't; it's easier to accept somebody who just has episodes of "not being themselves", yet pwBPD are always like that;
5) BP is sometimes called "maniac depression" - it's always easier for people to feel sympathy for someone with depression;
6) again as helloagain has written - I guess BPD is harder for significant others to bear than BP, since BPD strongly focuses on interpersonal relationships;
7) if somebody who is not affected by either of the conditions reads about them in internet - he gets the information that BP can be medically treated, since mood stabilizers are the cure; reading about BPD gives them information that "XYZ has proven efficiency in treating these symptoms, ABC has proven efficiency in treating those symptoms" - so well, for layman it might feel like there's no effective treatment for BPD (because I guess there isn't) - so in such a way BPD seem more terrible;
8 ) pwBPD tend to have mood changes more frequently than pw BPD:
-"normal" BP change extreme moods (mania and depression) withing months or years
- rapid-cycling BP ones change moods within months
- ultra-rapid BP change mood within days
- only ultradian BP change moods withing hours, however it's minority of all the BP cases;
- than we have pwBPD who can totally change mood withing minutes/hours - I guess it's just not normal for others.


The last thing I'd say is just my assumption, so I might be wrong - I guess only mixed-episode can be fairly compared to BPD. However, as extreme as it might be (possibly even worse than BPD), mixed episode firstly - it's just one of the possible episodes, so the tendency to appear is lower (even though it might be believed to be the most often occurring phase), secondly - it lasts within limited period of time (even if we talk about months, it would eventually end for some time). Yet - BPD lasts all the time. No break, no end.

[WOAH, what an elaboration]

Fear of abandonment prevents a BPD from trusting and accepting help from anyone in a consistent manner, so even well-wishers feel frustrated and give them up as hopeless cases.

does it?
full blown bipolar is no joke

helloagain wrote:Fear of abandonment prevents a BPD from trusting and accepting help from anyone in a consistent manner, so even well-wishers feel frustrated and give them up as hopeless cases.

This!

And also - I'm not really sure how pwBP work, but I really doubt that their episodes start so suddenly. I guess it might be unexpected, but I don't think that majority goes from "normal" to "extreme" in minutes. So let's assume that I meet someone and I promise myself that I would try for them to get hold of my disorder - I'm sure that no matter how many times I would succeed in controlling myself, there surely will be a moment when I'd loose to my emotions and go into hyper-impulsive mode of all sudden.
Even though pwBP cannot prevent their mood changes, I suppose they might feel that something changes inside of them and this may give them some time to prepare or to inform their surrounding that they might do something stupid. Even it's only couple of hours, it's still time to do something. I really cannot predict how I'd feel in the next 20 minutes (especially when I'm in a relationship). So I guess that might make me worse to be around. If I was to compare this to exploding bomb, I think with BP you have some time to escape, to dismantle, to do anything. With BPD the counting down starts from 5 seconds.

-- Sat Feb 04, 2017 11:18 am --

madjoe wrote:does it?
full blown bipolar is no joke

Nobody said that BP is a joke. In fact I think that the extremes in BP might be worse than BPD.
It's hard to say which one of these conditions is worse in general, because I think they work in different way.

Yet the topic was about the stigma.

BPD is the most prevalent personality disorder being treated in both outpatient and inpatient settings. When a PD is found difficult to diagnose, professionals may feel safe in labeling it as BPD until otherwise diagnosed.

And substance abuse, including prescription medicine abuse, is rampant in BPD, probably second only to ASPD, but much more than BD.