Cyclothymia or borderline

How can you tell if its your cyclothymia or your borderline?

It can be/is very hard to tell the difference.

However, there are some differences. In Borderline there's issues of abandonment fear, emptiness etc. Also, the mood swings in borderline are more dependent on the person's surroundings, whereas bipolar mood swings tend to come out of no where.

There's some good articles on the difference:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sto ... -disorders
http://www.casapalmera.com/articles/the ... -disorder/
http://www.psycheducation.org/depression/borderline.htm

But basically, only a psychiatrist can tell the difference. And even he/she might get it wrong. Misdiagnoses, where the two are confused, is quite common.

The best thing to do is talk to a psychiatrist, therapist, etc. about your concern. Tell why you think you might be borderline. The expert can tell you what kinds of things to journal. Then he or she can help you identify the differentiating characteristics in your own behavior and thoughts.

I was originally considered to be borderline then it was changed to cyclothymia and now I'm diagnosed bipolar 2. I think my diagnostic history goes to show that it is difficult to tell the difference.

There have been times in my life when I have fit some of the diagnostic criteria for borderline esp, when I had an eating disorder and self harmed and had unstable interpersonal relationships. I now realise that my poor relationship skills where due to the fact that I found it hard to balance my mood and my eating and so felt having no friends or boyfriends was easier. But I was younger then and was still figuring out life. Now the only criteria of borderline I fit is mood instability. I know now that is part of my bipolar but I can see why at the time it was mistaken for borderline.

I feel like my diagnosis is right. I feel like I cope now I'm being treat for bipolar whereas when I was thought to be borderline I really made no progress. I know now that is because I was entreat wrongly.

At one time I thought I had borderline myself (I can sometimes be very quick to anger, but it is something I am working at). Even though I would see a psychiatrist, a rule of thumb is the length of your mood changes, with longer episodes more indicative of bipolar. There are some schools of thought that say borderline and bipolar share a common link, so the differences between the two can get blurry.

Nille wrote:But basically, only a psychiatrist can tell the difference.

Haha!
Shows how unscientific and subjective it all is!