Is BPD overdiagnosed by incompetent psychologists?

Lately I have been noticing that people with psychology degrees keep diagnosing people with BPD a lot. I'm not a psychologist, but my IQ is 135 and I have read a lot about psychology and I think I have a good ability to analyze things. I think Tess from the TV show Starting Over has Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Some guy with a psychology degree said she had BPD. There's another person who I think has Histrionic Personality Disorder. Again, a psychology major thinks He has BPD. A moderator on this message board was sure his mother had PPD. Again, a professional diagnosed her with BPD.

I am starting to get the impression that psychologists and psychiatrists just diagnose people with BPD way too much and use it as a crutch because they don't want to be very specific in their diagnosis. Maybe they don't want to be held responsible for making a specific diagnosis. Maybe they want to keep things vague and confusing so people won't blame them for being wrong. BPD is the most vague personality disorder of all by far. It's hard to even understand what it is, it's so vague. It's like anybody who is very messed up, they can say that person has BPD. I'm not sure BPD is a real disorder. Maybe it's just something that lazy or incompetent psychologists call everyone who has personality problems.

I really do not trust the competency of psychiatrists and psychologists. I met one psychiatrist who was fairly good. She made me feel better about myself. She seemd fairly intelligent and wise. She was good mainly because she was very good at being sympathetic and she had some good common sense. But I met another psychiatrist and several therapists who were IDIOTS. They said the wrong things to me and their ideas were stupid, wrong, and ridiculous, and they weren't even good at being sympathetic. It seems like most of the therapists out there just want to get paid without helping people. It seems like they don't have the guts or the brains to actually try to give specific information to help anyone. So I really don't trust them. I have also heard a lot of other people saying how much therapists suck and how rare the good ones are. I personally have never met a good therapist.

I know there must be some great psychologists out there, because I've read some books and web pages that were intelligently written, but I haven't met any of these great people. They must be a small minority in the mental health field.

I think it's horrible that there are so many people with severe mental problems who need help, but there's so many therapists who are so bad and make you feel WORSE, and psychiatrists who are nothing more than drug pushers.

I did a little more reading and I am starting to get the impression that BPD is just a generalized category that BAD psychologists like to put people in because they're too lazy, stupid, ignorant, uncaring, incompetent, or irresponsible to make a specific, accurate diagnosis. It's probably that they're too stupid to figure out what someone's problems are, so they just say "you have BPD." BPD is so general that you can claim a lot of people have it. And that's why they like to use that diagnosis.

The problem I am seeing is that they don't spend enough time with the individual, and it's hard to break down overlapping sx's.

Where I live , it's like pulling teeth to get a new psychologist to recognize a previous dx that has been made by many doc's over 20 years. I find it hard to get treatment, because they refuse to see what the borderline knows to be documented fact.

There are many personality disorders and in my case BPD is the parent dx and the others were sure to follow. Also in my case it was all contributed to my parenting and learned thoughts and behavior. ( We shadow our parents actions, brainwashing, abusive redicule). Many of these things and others described in the sx's of.... can cause other pd's to develope to cope.

I do believe in the efforts to help the pt. the psychologists should suggest journaling to really be able to see the inner person and their true thoughts, rather than subject them to open discussion, which is very hard with this dx.

This is my first reading of BPD forums. I have been diagnosed many times, and by very good psychologists and/or psychiatrists. This is the first time that I am ready to deal with this, I never accepted the diagnosis before.

I was surprised to read your info on journaling. That is what my psychologist has me doing. The dr. was doing it for identifying various emotions and what triggers the emotions, what actions I wanted to take and what actions I actually do take. So I was wondering if this was the type of journaling you were referring to. I have been on the hospital merry-go-round but I am learning things I haven't before throughout years of counseling and meds.

As far as psychologists and psychiatrists go, I refuse to return to someone I don't get along with. If they can't help me, I won't see them. But there ARE very good, caring ones out there.

butterfly wrote:This is my first reading of BPD forums. I have been diagnosed many times, and by very good psychologists and/or psychiatrists. This is the first time that I am ready to deal with this, I never accepted the diagnosis before.

I was surprised to read your info on journaling. That is what my psychologist has me doing. The dr. was doing it for identifying various emotions and what triggers the emotions, what actions I wanted to take and what actions I actually do take. So I was wondering if this was the type of journaling you were referring to. I have been on the hospital merry-go-round but I am learning things I haven't before throughout years of counseling and meds.

As far as psychologists and psychiatrists go, I refuse to return to someone I don't get along with. If they can't help me, I won't see them. But there ARE very good, caring ones out there.

Hi there, and welcome to the bpd forum, yes, that is EXACTLY the kind of journaling I mean. That way they do see your daily ups and downs, black and white thinking, anger, triggers, med reactions, etc.
I think you'll find it will really help with yo ur treatment. I have a url with a mood diary/chart if you want one of those too. I believe you can find it in the bipolar forum (topic: Mood chart) It is a basic tool, but journaling helps release your feelings. I did both. So they could see the whole picture.

I printed out the mood diary. I think I will change the one category into something else, anger shifts, mood shifts, I'm not sure, but I'm not bipolar--at least to my knowledge. I have only had medicine highs a couple of times before. Otherwise it looks useful, if I can remember what happened during the day. My short term memory isn't very good. I can use that along with my other journaling. I guess it is getting into the habit of doing it.

Thanks for your reply to me.

Typed 'BPD overdiagnosed' into internet search window, this among others came up. I have the
same suspicion, after getting on Experience Project website and seeing what must be hundreds
of young people crying out for help after being diagnosed with BPD. Having read a number of their stories, I am very dubious whether these diagnoses are clinically accurate or helpful? I'm not a
mental health professional, but age and experience make me skeptical of the reductionism that occurs in this field, some might not consider a hard science, but that's beside the point.

Visited Mayo Clinic definitions and symptoms of Personality Disorder, and amazed how many sub-categories. Reading some reminds me of horoscopes or fortune cookies -- always something there would make one believe s/he migh have the disorder.

I'm skeptical. A psychiatrist once prescribed Zyprexa for me, that Ely Lilly pill marketed like the best thing since penicillium. Wrecked my health, brought me to death's door. Stuff was poison, leaving patients too mentally incapcitated to realize it was poison. / BPD seems to have been recently discovered as so prevalent and such a threat, like terrorism after 9/11. Must be one in every house if not under every bed, yaar? Am very glad to see others suspicious of overdiagnosing BPD.

In my opinion, it does exist but is over-diagnosed. It should not be a cluster B disorder, either, IMO.

I've seen many people get diagnosed BPD who were simply treatment resistant, by which I mean no meds or therapy seemed to be helping their other diagnosis