BPD vs DID

I don't see the connection between borderline personality d/o and DID, yet part of the DID controversy revolves around this disorder.

Example: I don't injur myself. I'm not impulsive. I don't fear abandonment.

If anything, I just want to live my life peacefully and be left in solitude mostly. How is BPD mixed up with DID?

A big part of BPD is identity confusion. Not really knowing who you are, feeling chronically empty, and changing your likes/dislikes and sense of personality depending on who you are with.

I guess it is this symptom of BPD that can get mixed up with having alters or DID.

Some people with DID, because of rapid switching between dissociated identities, superficially appear to have borderline personality disorder (BPD). This is fairly common.

Some people with DID, or an alter within their system, may have BPD in addition to DID.

On the other side, some people with uncontrolled BPD also have a variety of dissociative symptoms, especially depersonalization and derealization. They can also have severe depression, which often has as a symptom hallucinations.

I was suspected to have BPD. I was complaining about depressive episodes that were too short for major depressive disorder and missed the mania part of bipolar disorder. I was self-harming so they automatically assumed I had BPD. I don't have fear of abandonment, I don't do the whole splitting thing, I'm not very impulsive on a constant level, and I usually don't have difficulty controlling my anger.
I DO have mood swings, identity disturbance, was self-harming, had feelings of emptiness, and... well... some dissociative symptoms that I didn't even remember or think of when I was asked about it. i think they would have realized in time that I didn't have BPD, but I'm pretty sure that there can be some superficial resemblances between DID and BPD. which doesn't mean that everyone with DID has to have some symptoms of BPD. I think mostly the similarities are due to the fact that both disorders are thought to be caused by childhood trauma/abuse. they are both different coping mechanisms and I guess some types of coping like self-injury can be part of either one.

I was diagnosed with BPD, yet even having read up on it I still don't understand it. To me, it seems to be an umbrella catch-all term. As for myself, I seem to (and I hope this doesn't offend anybody because I only use this to describe myself) be "too crazy for the sane world yet too sane for the 'crazy' world." That's not to call others "crazy" because very few people actually are, I just mean the doctors kind of dismiss me "There's nothing wrong with this girl, but there's something wrong with her" As Alanis Morrisette once sang, "I'm sick but I'm healthy"

I've often thought that I have mostly mild DID. There have been many times where I feel like I'm floating outside my body watching somebody else take the wheel. They're saying and doing things that I don't like, and I tell them "Stop it! Shut up!" but they don't listen...but I'm watching myself. It's weird. Other times somebody will be talking about something I said or did, but I have no memory of this happening. Sometimes I'll forget what I'm saying mid-sentence. One time I was in the shower, lost in thought, then all of a sudden I felt myself Come Back. I had no idea I'd gone anywhere. After a moment of shock, I was like "Oh. I'm washing my hair." So many odd little moments.

My friend, on the other hand, has far from mild but definitely controlled DID. Actually, I kinda helped a couple of her alters when they first realized their situation. They've now become a very structured system, two of them are pretty much integrated, the other knows how she's supposed to behave and dress when out, they communicate very well within their system. A huge leap from their early days! But I've already said too much on them, and out of respect for their privacy I can't and won't say much more about that. Although next time I see them, I will recommend they visit this forum.

(When I do come on the Psych Forums, I'm usually in the Asperger's community. I seem to score high on the Aspie scale, and my boyfriend has Asperger's. Sometimes, but rarely, I'm in the BPD forums. That's why you haven't seen me here before)

Racheal: We already PM'd her. But maybe we should post it here if she didn't notice the PM.

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Knowledge: This could be DID. You should let them talk to you. You should know them, respect them, just like what you do to your friends. (If you don't have friends, I'm sorry.) I hope you will reply this. It's too hard to get noticed by a PM in this forum I think.
Racheal: Talk to them. You should talk to them.

Thank you I'd like to, and the PMs are only hard to notice cuz of where they placed the control panel.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences with this, everyone. It's food for thought.

I'm "diagnosed" (err, by my father who's physician but not oficially diagnosed) with BPD and Cyclothymia. I don't really feel "cyclothymic", so I think that's his missdiagnose of DID, even though I firmly believe I have BPD myself. I think not all the other alters have BPD, though.
While BPD can be missdiagnosed as DID because of it usually involves dissociation, it also makes sense that DID and BPD can be together. If a person has facility to dissociate, it's more likely that he/she will develop any disorder involving dissociation after a traumatic event (BPD, Dissociative Disorders/probably DID).

Interesting thread.